Temporary nerve damage is more common, and it usually improves within a few days or weeks. Permanent nerve damage after a dentist injection of local anaesthetic near to nerves that are close to the affected area during your dental procedure is rare, but not unheard of.
Some of the signs of nerve damage after receiving a dental injection may include: A lack of sensation in the area treated even after the anaesthetic should have worn off. Numbness or lack of feeling in the tongue, gums, cheeks, jaw or face. A pulling or tingly sensation in these areas.
Nerve damage is one of the most common injuries made by dentists, and it can be extremely painful and damaging. Whether or not you've suffered a dental injury, arm yourself against dental malpractice and discover common types of dental nerve damage, how they're caused, and what you can do.
If drilled too deeply, they can cause permanent damage to the inferior alveolar nerve. If you experience sharp pain or numbness within 8 hours of surgery, your dentist should be contacted immediately. The window to treating this type of nerve injury is short and failure to do so can result in permanent nerve damage.
With treatment, dental nerve damage can heal in six to eight weeks. If, however, the effects last more than six months, then it is considered permanent nerve damage. Depending on the cause of injury, there are various treatments that may be applied to treat dental nerve damage.
If the filling is too close to the nerve, it may get infected slowly. Dentists can't predict the time frame for the tooth to become infected. If infected, you may experience a throbbing pain or a dental abscess.
A Negligence Claim
Yes, you can sue for medical malpractice if you suffer from nerve damage after dental work. After filing a lawsuit, you must prove medical negligence for nerve damage. This could have been caused by the professional not carrying out any procedure correctly.
Tooth nerve pain can feel severe like a sharp, stabbing pain or as little as a dull ache. If your tooth nerve is exposed, particular foods and drinks will probably trigger the pain. Pain in an exposed tooth nerve can be triggered by foods and drinks that are hot or cold, sugary, acidic, or sour.
In some cases where nerve damage is involved, dental numbness can be permanent. Therefore, if a patient is experiencing long-term dental numbness, they should not assume it is normal and will go away on its own. They must contact their dentist or another health care professional regarding possible nerve damage.
So, when the dentist is shaking your cheek, he or she is trying overload the “highway”, thereby blocking the pain of the injection from reaching your central nervous system. Think about it: have you ever rubbed your elbow after you bumped it?
Results. Exposure of peripheral nerves to local anesthetics may result in axonal damage, particularly if the solution is injected intrafascicularly, if the concentration is high, and if duration of exposure is prolonged.
The upper jaw is much more porous than the lower jaw. Therefore, simply placing the anesthetic under the gum next to an upper tooth will cause the tooth to numb. The lower jaw is much denser and if you put anesthetic next to a tooth it will not penetrate the jaw and reach the nerves of the tooth.
Do I Need to Go to the Emergency Room for Tooth Pain? The short answer is that you should go based on how you feel. If you have excruciating tooth pain that you can't take for a second longer or prolonged, excessive mouth bleeding that you can't get under control, you may need to head to the emergency room.
In fact, even some women agree that tooth pain could be worse than giving birth. So yeah, it's pretty rough.
If you have been injured after seeing a dentist, you may wonder if you can sue for medical negligence. The short answer is yes.
The nerves (alveolar and lingual) supplying sensation to the tongue, lower lip and chin, may be injured as a result of surgical treatments to the mouth and face, including surgery to remove lower wisdom teeth. The vast majority (90%) of these injuries are temporary and get better within eight weeks.
The numbness from your local anesthetic may last a few hours and perhaps as long as 24 hours. In very rare situations, the effect of lidocaine can last up to two days.
If your dentist has performed a deep filling, it's possible it got close to the nerve resulting in discomfort or sensitivity. This sensation should heal as your nerve heals. It could take a few days or a few weeks, but it should improve rather than get worse.
There are many signs that your filling may need to be replaced. Some of these include sensitivity to hot or cold food or beverages, an uneven surface, cracking, chipping, or decay around the filling, a broken tooth again, shifting of a tooth's position, or a change in the color of a tooth after it has been filled.
Nerve pain that produces sensitivity to pressure and temperature is normal after a filling and though many don't experience discomfort after a filling, others do. Sometimes, when the decay is too close to the nerve, a root canal may be necessary to restore the tooth.
Your Dentist Missed
There is always the slightest chance for error. If your dentist doesn't hit the nerve, you likely won't feel numb. Let your dentist know you don't feel numb and they will inject you again.
Genetics can cause a variety of conditions make it difficult to numb your gum tissue including: Resistance to dental anesthetic in your peripheral nervous system. Abnormal location of your tooth nerves that make it difficult to precisely inject anesthetic. High resistance to anesthetics and low pain tolerance.
Individuals who are extra nervous at the dentist may have problems getting numb. This could be due to a number of factors. Jaw clenching and holding your breath may change the way the body reacts to painkillers. Extreme anxiety may also influence the perception of pain even though there are no biological changes.
The risk of a significant peripheral nerve injury lasting more than three months, is estimated to be less than 1 in 2,000 patients having a general anaesthetic. 7 Permanent damage, lasting more than a year, is estimated to be less than 1 in 5,000.