Molecules: You'd better learn to live with them.
My dentist has an incredible knack for administering anesthetic without much pain. I'm not sure what combination of factors are at play, but getting work done there is essentially painless. My main problem for years was the fact that my mouth was numb for a good part of a day after leaving. I went today, and it had been a few years since I had anything done. For years, my dentist (and probably yours) used lidocaine, which works fine but has an elimination half-life of about 90 minutes. This time, the anaesthetic had changed.
In 1969 (20 years after lidocaine was discovered, and a mere 65 years since novocaine replaced cocaine in most local anaesthesia) articaine was discovered in Germany; it has been available in Europe since the mid to late seventies. It only made its way over to the States in 2000. Articaine has a 20 minute half-life, much shorter than lidocaine. The duration of action was so short that after the ~2hrs I was supposed to wait to eat, I pretty much had regained sensation. No tongue-gnawing for me.
Articaine is the generic name and Septocaine is the brand name the manufacturer uses.
Comments
Yes, but what is the structure of Iocaine powder?
Posted by: John Wilkins | January 3, 2007 9:20 AM
My current dentist is so slick at anesthesia that the way I know he's slipping a needle in is that he stops moving for half a minute. I never feel the needle. That takes a deft hand, and he's got two of them.
Posted by: Roy | January 3, 2007 10:02 AM
What about iocaine powder? I've spent my whole life building an immunity to it.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | January 9, 2007 8:17 PM