11 Serious Dental Anesthesia Side Effects You Need to Know About (2023)

FAQs

Can dental anesthesia cause permanent damage? ›

Prolonged and possibly permanent change in sensation due to nerve damage can occur after dental injections. Although the condition is rare, many practitioners will see this form of nerve injury during their careers.

Common local complications associated with local anesthesia are reported as pain at injection, needle fracture, prolongation of anesthesia and various sensory disorders, lack of effect, trismus, infection, edema, hematoma, gingival lesions, soft tissue injury, and ophthalmologic complications [2, 3].

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.

In most situations, the anesthesia your dentist uses will numb the tooth for 1 to 2 hours. Additionally, the following 3 to 5 hours may leave your lips, face, and tongue numb, which can be frustrating if you're attempting to return to normal activities immediately following your appointment.

When a patient is experiencing lidocaine toxicity, the patient usually has a fast heart rate and high blood pressure initially. Then, as the toxicity increases, the patient will experience a very slow heart rate (bradycardia) and very low blood pressure (hypotension).

Here are some of the most common signs of tooth nerve pain: A dull ache along the gum line. Pain that targets a single tooth or radiates throughout the mouth. Discomfort that worsens after eating, especially following meals that are hot, cold, or acidic.

Hematoma – If your dentist's needle hits a blood vessel, you might experience a hematoma, which is a small swollen area of the gum filled with blood. This is usually harmless and goes away on its own after a period of time.

Local anesthetic systemic toxicity (LAST) is a life-threatening adverse event that may occur after the administration of local anesthetic drugs through a variety of routes. Increasing use of local anesthetic techniques in various healthcare settings makes contemporary understanding of LAST highly relevant.

Trismus. Trismus after anaesthesia is usually caused by intramuscular injection of the anaesthetics in the pterygomandibular space. It can occur even 2 – 5 days after inferior alveolar block anaesthesia. Affected muscles are usually either the lateral pterygoid muscle or the temporal muscle.

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.

What is dental paresthesia? ›

Dental paresthesia is loss of sensation caused by maxillary or mandibular anesthetic administration before dental treatment.

Damage to branches of the trigeminal nerve following maxillofacial surgery and dental treatment is unfortunately common, in most cases the symptoms are transient and patients fully recover sensation over time. Persistent nerve damage results in severe complications such as neuropathic pain and trigeminal neuralgias.

Anxiety related to local anesthesia injection has a significant effect on patient's cardiovascular status. Many patients have been reported of having cardiac attack and vasovagal syncope due to high level of stress generated in response to local anesthetic injection.

Nerve injury

It can cause pain, a tingling sensation and numbness in your tongue, lower lip, chin, teeth and gums. The damage is usually temporary, lasting for a few weeks or months.

Anesthetic drugs can stay in your system for up to 24 hours. If you've had sedation or regional or general anesthesia, you shouldn't return to work or drive until the drugs have left your body. After local anesthesia, you should be able to resume normal activities, as long as your healthcare provider says it's okay.

Initial signs and symptoms include agitation, confusion, dizziness, drowsiness, dysphoria, auditory changes, tinnitus, perioral numbness, metallic taste, and dysarthria. Without adequate recognition and treatment, these signs as symptoms can progress to seizures, respiratory arrest, and/or coma.

Severe muscle rigidity or spasms. Rapid, shallow breathing and problems with low oxygen and high carbon dioxide. Rapid heart rate. Irregular heart rhythm.

In very rare cases, you could have an allergic reaction to the local anaesthetic or develop serious problems, such as fits (seizures) or a cardiac arrest (when the heart stops pumping blood around the body).

It is possible to suffer nerve injury through dental work; this can be after an injection for anaesthesia, tooth replacement, crowns or after a tooth extraction (see Wisdom Teeth). There are two main nerves in the mouth that can be susceptible to damage these are the lingual nerve and the inferior alveolar nerve.

A trigeminal nerve injury may affect a small area, like part of your gum, or a large area, like one side of your face. The injury can cause problems with chewing and speaking. The extent depends on where the nerve damage occurs. You may have ongoing numbness or facial pain in the area that the nerve serves.

What are the symptoms of mandibular nerve damage? ›

Additionally, damage to the mandibular or trigeminal nerves impact the function of the inferior alveolar nerve. Symptoms of damage to the inferior alveolar nerve include pain, abnormal sensations, and/or numbness in the chin, lower lip, or around the lower teeth.

If a substantial amount is ingested, enough can be absorbed into the bloodstream to affect vital organs, primarily the brain and heart. Symptoms can range from mild drowsiness and headache to confusion, seizures, coma, and cardiac arrest.

Ester local anesthetics and carbonated lidocaine produce widespread and severe damage of the nerve fibers and the blood-nerve barriers when injected within the fascicles.

If local anesthetic with a vasoconstrictor is mistakenly administered intravascularly, expected consequences can include inadequate anesthesia, shooting pain, skin pallor or ischemia, and/or heart palpitations.

Current guidelines recommend the intravenous (IV) infusion of lipid emulsion to reverse the cardiac and neurologic effects of local anesthetic toxicity. Although no blinded studies have been conducted in humans, a systemic review and meta-analysis has confirmed the efficacy of lipid emulsion therapy.

Bupivacaine is the most cardiotoxic of the LAs (Table 3.10), the cardiotoxic effects being enhanced by hypoxia, hypercapnia, acidosis and hyperkalaemia. It inhibits cardiac conductivity and contractility, and may induce ventricular fibrillation.

Intralipid 20% is used as an “antidote.” It is thought to act as a hydrophobic “sink” and sequester the local anesthetic. It is administered at 1.5 mL/kg over 1 minute, followed by an infusion of 0.25 mL/kg/min. Boluses can be repeated every 3–5 minutes.

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms of trismus include: Increased jaw pain. Inability to open the jaw (you cannot fit 3 fingers [lined up vertically] between the top and bottom teeth in the front of the mouth). A "spasm" or “tight” sensation when attempting to open the mouth.

Trismus usually resolves itself in less than two weeks, but it can be very painful in the meantime. Permanent trismus can occur too. Whether trismus is around for days or months, daily exercises and massaging can ease the pain.

Can I sue my dentist for trigeminal neuralgia? ›

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.

While most nerve damage is always accidental, negligence by a dentist during a dental procedure can also result in dental 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.

Dental negligence occurs when a healthcare professional has failed to provide adequate care for you. This can include any instances involving incorrect, delayed or poor treatment that has led to further injury or suffering.

Neuropraxia is the mildest form of traumatic peripheral nerve injury. It is characterized by focal segmental demyelination at the site of injury without disruption of axon continuity and its surrounding connective tissues. This condition results in blockage of nerve conduction and transient weakness or paresthesia.

In most cases, nerve palsy begins instantly after local anesthetic injection into the retromolar region and usually resolves within 12 hours. However, in rare cases, onset of symptoms may be delayed for several hours to days.

If your lingual nerve sustains an injury, you'll most likely experience any of these nerve damage symptoms: Changed sensation in the tongue, chin, or lower lip areas (similar to sensations you feel when your oral cavity is numbed for a dental procedure or as the anesthesia slowly wears off) Altered ability to taste.

The Trigeminal Nerve

It is the nerve responsible for providing sensation to the face. One trigeminal nerve runs to the right side of the head, while the other runs to the left. Each of these nerves has three distinct branches.

Conditions that can mimic trigeminal neuralgia include cluster headaches or migraines, post-herpetic neuralgia (pain following an outbreak of shingles) and TMJ disorder. It's also important to rule out sinusitis and ear infections.

What can happen after a dental anesthetic injection? Injury to one of the nerves of the mouth is one of the most common injuries after a dentist injects local anesthetic into a patient's gums. Over two-thirds of nerve injuries after a local anesthetic injection involve the lingual nerve, which supplies the tongue.

Heart – Upper and lower third molars (wisdom teeth) Bladder –Upper and lower incisors. Kidney – Upper and lower incisors.

Can you get myocarditis from dental work? ›

SBE can occur after dental work and some other medical procedures because they almost always result in bacteria entering the blood. SBE can usually be prevented by taking an antibiotic before these procedures.

An individual who undergoes dental surgery has a higher risk of developing a heart attack or stroke for a few weeks after the procedure, British researchers have revealed in an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine.

After a tooth extraction, you should develop a blood clot in the socket (hole) that's left behind. It'll look like a dark-colored scab. But if you have a dry socket, the clot will be absent and you'll be able to see bone. For this reason, dry sockets usually appear white.

Most studies have shown that if the paresthesia follows extraction, it is likely to be temporary and resolve within the first six to eight weeks after the trauma, although it may take up to 24 months.

Studies in people

They found that general anaesthesia was associated with higher risks of dementia. The older the person when they had surgery the more likely they were to have a higher risk of dementia. The researchers suggested that older brains could be less resistant to damage caused by anaesthesia.

General anesthesia is considered to not only suppress surgical stress, but also affect the immune function directly，such as altering the number and activity of immune cells. It is reported that some anesthetics increase susceptibility to tumor metastasis, apparently by suppressing natural killer cell activity.

Patients frequently report having dreams during general anesthesia. The incidence of dreams during general anesthesia that have been reported by patients upon awakening has been reported to range from 10 to 36% [1] and to be higher in younger patients, female patients [2], and patients who received ketamine [3].

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.

Q: Is paresthesia ever permanent? A: It is extremely rare for a patient receiving local anesthesia in a dental office to never lose it, meaning that the area remains as numb as it was after the injection was given.

Local anaesthetics have been known to cause trigeminal nerve injuries. Informs the reader of the key symptoms and functional disturbances experienced by patients with iatrogenic inferior alveolar nerve and lingual nerve injuries.

What happens if dental anesthesia doesn't wear off? ›

In the rare case your numbing doesn't wear off several hour after your dental procedure, contact your dentist as soon as possible. They can take a close look at your mouth and determine why the numbing is still present. Additionally, they can make recommendations on how to resolve the numbing.

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.

Damage to branches of the trigeminal nerve following maxillofacial surgery and dental treatment is unfortunately common, in most cases the symptoms are transient and patients fully recover sensation over time. Persistent nerve damage results in severe complications such as neuropathic pain and trigeminal neuralgias.

Dental paresthesia is loss of sensation caused by maxillary or mandibular anesthetic administration before dental treatment.

Hematoma – If your dentist's needle hits a blood vessel, you might experience a hematoma, which is a small swollen area of the gum filled with blood. This is usually harmless and goes away on its own after a period of time.

Can Needles Harm the Nerves? Yes. Even though many anesthetic injections are performed daily in dental offices across the country, there is a risk of a dentist or anesthesiologist not performing the injection properly. When this happens, there could be damage to the nerves and soft tissues of the mouth.

Ester local anesthetics and carbonated lidocaine produce widespread and severe damage of the nerve fibers and the blood-nerve barriers when injected within the fascicles.

There are reports of injury to many nerves as a result of patient positioning, but the commonest injuries are to the ulnar nerve, common peroneal nerve, and brachial plexus.

A trigeminal nerve injury may affect a small area, like part of your gum, or a large area, like one side of your face. The injury can cause problems with chewing and speaking. The extent depends on where the nerve damage occurs. You may have ongoing numbness or facial pain in the area that the nerve serves.

Studies that have investigated the toxicity of various local anesthetics have suggested that lidocaine is more toxic than equipotent concentrations of bupivacaine [28,29].

How do you Unnumb your mouth after the dentist? ›

If the skin isn't tender and it doesn't hurt to do so, try gently massaging your face where it's numb. Be sure to not massage the injection sight directly. Massaging the area can help stimulate blood flow into that area which helps the numbing feeling fade away.

Anesthetic drugs can stay in your system for up to 24 hours. If you've had sedation or regional or general anesthesia, you shouldn't return to work or drive until the drugs have left your body. After local anesthesia, you should be able to resume normal activities, as long as your healthcare provider says it's okay.