Why does it hurt to get a tooth drilled even with Novacane?

[starryeyedkitten]

Have you ever got a tooth filled and felt a twinge of pain even with novacane? Why is that?

[DarkHumorRUs]

I broke three teeth. One chipped, one broke off down to the gum one completely fell out.

None of that entire experience hurt, except for when the broken off one didn't get crowned yet, and if I ate hot/cold stuff it would be super sensitive.

[Applefan1]

Maybe part of it comes down to how good the dentist is? It never hurts for me when I get a tooth filled or maybe your mouth is just more sensitive.

[GingerGuy]

It's hitting live nerves. I can only imagine how painful it would be without it. It only helps to a certain point. Getting a needle in a live nerve (or the pain) is incredibly painful to.

[Bowshots86]

Yeah just the other day i had to be given 5 shots of novocaine before i was fully numbed up. The dentist told me he thought it was because i had such a high metabolism my body was just burning off the shot before it could fully take effect

[badger25]

Not really for fillings, but when I had my wisdom teeth removed. It was incredibly painful while they were being extracted. But the next day I was totally fine

[Mistnigqa808]

You must have had an infection or something. Cuz when you're numb all ya should feel is pressure but not pain.

[thatkaruguy]

because you're killing a nerve when you drill into a tooth

[Likes2drive]

Usually just feel pressure after, the needle is the most pain getting the novocaine but after its fine, maybe they didn't use enough or hit the right area with it

[Skadouchebag]

I assume that it's because novocane only numbs the nerves in your gums and cheeks and tongue, it doesn't numb the nerves in your actual teeth.

[Skadouchebag]

actually, looking back on some of the work I've had, that can't be the case. It's actually probably the case that the operation would hurt much more without the novocane.

[NYkid27]

Because nerves are extremely sensitive and it's hard to numb them completely even with local anesthetics

[blondfrog]

Dentists are assholes that's why.

[Dred1614]

I didn't even get numbed for fillings.

[Mistnigqa808]

they must have not been root deep then, right?

[Dred1614]

@Mistnigqa808 You're right. I've never needed one that deep.