In theory, local anesthetic blocks pain. It prevents depolarization of the nerve membrane, and should make it impossible for the nerve to transmit pain impulses.

But when dentists have been in private practice for long enough, they realize that there must be other factors at work. Some patients seems to be difficult or impossible to totally anesthetize.

I know a lot about this subject because I’m one of these patients.

My story, as most of these stories do, begins in my childhood. The dentist my parents took me to when I was in grade school did not use local anesthetic. I think my fingernail-prints are still in his chair. I endured it, but wow, did it hurt! When we moved and got another dentist who used novocain, I was amazed. Who invented this stuff? It was great.

Then, in college, I had a difficult experience with dental care that brought back some of those memories.

For the rest of this article, see the article Dr. Hall wrote, Dental Fear, that was published in Dental Economics, February 2003.

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