Floss religiously

My mouth is numb

I've had an interesting day, and I thought I'd share it.

After the usual series of Wednesday morning classes, we had a lunch lecture (which I skipped), and I was scheduled for the dreaded first anesthesia clinic.

I don't really have many fears about using the techniques and methods that I've spent the last 2 and a half years learning. Instead, I have fears about having some other goober use them on me. The only thing worse than getting a shot at the dentist is getting a shot from a dentist who has never given one before.

And that's why I was dreading the anesthesia clinic today--because I was scheduled to receive injections from another student. Rumors have been swirling all semester about the horror stories from years past.

We had a brief little talk from our friendly oral surgeon that included things like this: "push it in unil you hit the bone... then back off a little." And "aspirate (suck with a needle) a little bit to make sure you're not injecting into an artery.

We were then released to our little cubicles to poke each other with needles attached to carpules of xylocaine--2% actually. Somebody had the foresight to supply us with the stuff without epinephrine (so the numbness went away sooner).

Despite my fears of the worst, things went nicely. The injections I recieved went fairly well, and it only hurt a little.

The first injection I gave went smoothly. The second, well.. it went almost as smoothly. She still got numb.

And on that note---so am I, and I really need to stop sucking on my numb cheek.