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Comment by merpnderp | Hacker News Reader

How was it possible to hold still while having a large nerve drilled out?

I can't speak to dental stuffs, but some local anesthetics don't work on me. I found it remarkably easy, though extraordinarily painful, to maintain stillness while having my foot stitched back together. The grip I had on the bedframe, however, I'm surprised I didn't break it or tear something apart in my arm.

I can't really say how I did it, because I'm not sure. I just knew I had to and didn't move.

I feel like dental work is harder. I've had an ingrown toenail worked on, and every painkiller injection was a) incredibly painful, b) barely useful for dulling the pain. After about seven shots, I decided that the knife-work on my toe was going to be less painful than subsequent injections, and toughed it out.

It's much harder when having dental work done; I've had painkillers not-quite-take, and I always ask for additional injections, unless they're minutes from being done.

Holy crap am I glad I'm extra sensitive to painkillers' effects. For tooth work, I can easily get by on half a shot.

One thing few writers focus on, in terms of the post-apocalypse, is dental care. A cavity can literally kill you if it progresses far enough. David Brin actually addressed this in The Postman; maybe this is why everyone in post-apocalyptic television and most films has shiny white teeth - they know!

Whenever I read or hear about "preppers" or people preparing for a catastrophe, I've always wondered what their plan was for dental care. When I was in my early 20's, my wisdom teeth became impacted. My only symptom was a horrible upper respiratory infection that turned into pneumonia. Without antibiotics and then surgery to remove the teeth, I probably would have died.

And The Postman was a wonderful book.

So far for dental work anesthetics have always taken for me (or I've been knocked out, like when my wisdom teeth were pulled). I only brought it up because the foot happens to be another particularly sensitive area of the body. It's possible to get by without anesthetics, and you may (though I hope no one here ever has to find out) surprise yourself by how much you can tolerate while still remaining still for the procedure.

But in general, I think you're correct that dental work is harder. A bunch of stitches on the bottom of your foot, however, is still some sort of torture. The ones I've had on my head or arms or torso with other non-functioning anesthetics were far easier to take.

The way root canals were handled is by usually killing the nerve via opening up the nerve, putting arsenic in and sealing it with a temporary filling for 2-3 days. After that's all done, there's very little pain felt except when the doctor goes far enough to poke at the gums. The procedure does take longer than with anesthesia in that you need two visits for the whole process, but that's how they did it.

That explains a lot. I had one of these improperly done on a molar about 10 years ago. After the anesthetic wore off from the first visit, the pain slowly grew over the next few days until it was of brilliant, blinding, bang-head-against-hard-object make it STOP!! intensity.

After they took off the temp filling, the smell was nauseating. Apparently it wasn't cleaned very well.

Never went to that guy again.

The foul odor may well have been from an infection.

That is absolutely not normal.

Arsenic? So they not only using mercury in fillings but arsenic too for killing the nerve, nice :(.

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