Most people don’t associate fun with the dentist, and when you’re talking about potentially painful procedures that require your mouth to be numbed, “fun” probably isn’t the first word that pops into your head. To add insult to injury, your mouth feels all numb, and you can’t taste or talk right for a while afterward.
The most numbness that you feel from dental anesthesia is from a local anesthetic that is injected. This injection is typically lidocaine. The numbness usually spreads all over the area injected, including your teeth, gums, tongue, and lips. However, numbing can be a result of a topical gel, IV, pill, or laughing gas as well.
In this guide, we find out How long does numbness last after oral surgery, How do you get rid of numbness after oral surgery, bottom lip numb after wisdom teeth removal, and prolonged numbness after dental work.
How Long Does the Numbness Last After Tooth Extraction
The numbness of your mouth is often drastic. You will lose basic feeling to a large portion of your mouth. You won’t be able to properly feel your tongue or cheeks like you usually can. This means that you need to stay conscious of accidentally biting down on your tongue or cheeks and causing yourself injury.
The numbing can last as little as two hours all the way up to five hours, and if you are administered a heavy painkiller as after a wisdom tooth extraction, you may feel numb to pain for much longer.
Numbness from a local anesthetic will depend greatly on how much is administered and where. The lower part of your jaw requires more anesthesia because of a nerve, that if not properly numbed, could still cause you pain. Another factor is your own metabolism. People with a higher metabolism will regain feeling much faster than people with a slow metabolism.
How long does numbness last after oral surgery
A trip to the dentist for a routine filling, root canal, or other procedure will likely require a local anesthetic to numb the area and prevent you from feeling pain during your treatment. 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.
Having patience is the most common way to address the numbness, as it will naturally wear away with time; however, these at-home remedies may help!
Massage Your Skin
If no swelling is present, apply a warm compress to help increase blood flow to the affected area. In addition to using a warm compress, try massaging your lips to warm them, and increase blood flow. Avoid touching the treatment area directly, and always wash your hands before and after massaging your lips, mouth, and face.
Get Active
Ask your dentist if it’s safe to participate in physical activity following your dental procedure. Taking a brisk walk, going for a bike ride, or even doing a few chores around the house will help to reduce numbness in a natural way. Being active stimulates blood flow in the body, which helps carry the anesthesia away from the injection site. The encouraging movement will enable your body to break down and metabolize the novocaine that was used during your treatment.
Take a Nap
While taking a nap is the opposite of being active, falling asleep can help to get your mind off of the fact that certain areas of your mouth and face are numb. Sit back, relax, and allow the numbing sensation to pass until the sensation wears off peacefully.
Ask For Another Injection
Some dental practices use medicine that can reverse the effects of general anesthesia. While this will mean another injection, a second reversal injection can also help to make the numbness dissipate twice as fast as just waiting it out. A reversal injection typically costs $25–$75, and most insurance companies will not cover the injection, due to the fact that it is not medically necessary.
Have Patience
Since different types of dental procedures require different amounts of anesthesia, there is no one-size-fits-all answer for how long your mouth will stay numb after a procedure. Additionally, other factors come into play as to how long the numbing sensation will last, such as your height, weight, and how fast your body is able to metabolize the anesthesia. Where in your mouth you need work done also comes into play, as the bottom jaw is a large nerve block that controls sensations to more areas of your face.
Have patience in allowing the anesthesia to wear off before making a big presentation at work, having a date with a romantic interest, or eating a big meal. You should be feeling like yourself in no-time.
Make a Follow-up Dental Appointment
While a local anesthetic following a dental procedure can cause lip numbness for two or three hours, prolonged numbness could indicate a complication. If, after five hours, you’re experiencing persistent numbness following a dental implant, filling, wisdom tooth extraction, or another dental procedure, contact your dentist. A follow-up visit may be necessary, as lingering numbness after an oral procedure could indicate nerve damage or an abscess.
Contact Tompkins Dental today if you’d like to hear additional tips for speeding up the return of normal sensation following a dental procedure, or if you have any concerns regarding prolonged numbness.
How to Make Numbness Go Away After Dental
It is that time when you are experiencing intense pain in your teeth. It turns out that you have a wisdom tooth popping up out of nowhere. Well, it might be an indication you are one heck of a genius (pun intended), but it might also be highly possible that it would cause some serious pain in your mouth. You begin seeing the effects of it, too much pain and you have to rush to the dentist.
The dentist tells you that they will have to remove your wisdom tooth that is causing pain. They will inject a numbing agent in your mouth to save you from the pain that comes from tooth removal. That accounts for lip and chin numbness after wisdom teeth removal. Now the question arises: How long does numbness last after wisdom teeth removal?
Lip and Chin Numbness After Wisdom Teeth Removal
Lip and Chin numbness after wisdom teeth removal can get really problematic for some people. You don’t feel anything, for starters. It is hard to eat, laugh, and smile. For some, talking also becomes difficult. Everyone undergoing such numbness wants to find out how long does numbness lasts after wisdom teeth removal, so here is the answer!
The short answer to the question, “How long does numbness last after wisdom teeth removal?” is two to five hours. It is because the painkiller injected in your mouth works against the pain that comes with wisdom tooth extraction, and it sorts to numb your mouth against it.
The numbness that you experience in your mouth, especially lips and chin, can get really dramatic. You might have the feeling of sucking up a large portion of your mouth. You might not be able to feel your cheeks and tongue in the way that you usually can. It eventually means that you will need to stay alert for the accidental biting of your tongue or cheeks, causing an injury to occur during the numbness.
This numb sensation might tend to last at a minimum of two hours to up to five hours. However, if the dentist gives you a very high dose of painkillers during the wisdom tooth extraction procedure, it might take even longer than five hours.
Does Numbness Depend on Something?
The overall numbness from a local anesthetic would pretty much depend on the quantity as well as the site of administration of the agent. The jaw’s lower part will require a lot of anesthesia because of the presence of the nerve. If it doesn’t get numbed in a proper manner, it might cause you real-time pain. Your body’s metabolism will also play a role in determining your numbness duration. People with a high metabolism will be able to get rid of the numbness as compared to individuals with a slow metabolism.
The best advice in that order is to not worry regarding it. In most cases, the sensation will go on its own.
bottom lip numb after wisdom teeth removal
It is that time when you are experiencing intense pain in your teeth. It turns out that you have a wisdom tooth popping up out of nowhere. Well, it might be an indication you are one heck of a genius (pun intended), but it might also be highly possible that it would cause some serious pain in your mouth. You begin seeing the effects of it, too much pain and you have to rush to the dentist.
The dentist tells you that they will have to remove your wisdom tooth that is causing pain. They will inject a numbing agent in your mouth to save you from the pain that comes from tooth removal. That accounts for lip and chin numbness after wisdom teeth removal. Now the question arises: How long does numbness last after wisdom teeth removal?
Lip and Chin Numbness
Lip and Chin numbness after wisdom teeth removal can get really problematic for some people. You don’t feel anything, for starters. It is hard to eat, laugh, and smile. For some, talking also becomes difficult. Everyone undergoing such numbness wants to find out how long does numbness lasts after wisdom teeth removal, so here is the answer!
The short answer to the question, “How long does numbness last after wisdom teeth removal?” is two to five hours. It is because the painkiller injected in your mouth works against the pain that comes with wisdom tooth extraction, and it sorts to numb your mouth against it.
The numbness that you experience in your mouth, especially lips and chin, can get really dramatic. You might have the feeling of sucking up a large portion of your mouth. You might not be able to feel your cheeks and tongue in the way that you usually can. It eventually means that you will need to stay alert of the accidental biting of your tongue or the cheeks, causing an injury to occur during the numbness.
This numb sensation might tend to last at a minimum of two hours to up to five hours. However, if the dentist gives you a very high dose of painkillers during the wisdom tooth extraction procedure, it might take even longer than five hours.
Prolonged Numbness After Dental Work
Numbness from anesthetics after dental work is common, and it can be frustrating to experience a numbness that won’t go away.
According to a CDC update from April 2021, more than 25% of people have untreated dental conditions. Many of these cases are due to fears associated with anesthetics.
Some patients will forgo visiting the dentist to avoid dealing with long-term numbness. Fortunately, there are ways to deal with the numbness and manage the associated discomfort faster.
How Long Does Dental Numbness Last?
Two of the most common numbing agents used by dentist to help keep patients from feeling pain during procedures are lidocaine and Novocain. It can take up to 24 hours for the effects of these numbing agents to wear off completely. For many, that can seem like a long time.
Typically, the numbness after a dental procedure should begin to wear off after about three to five hours. However, if after a few hours or so the patient still feels numbness in their mouth and it hasn’t decreased at all, there are some options for getting rid of it faster, which we will cover below.
Additional Side Effects of Dental Anesthetics
Local anesthetics are given intravenously, directly into the lining of the mouth. Dentists inject them at or near where the dental procedure will occur. Whichever form of anesthetic the dentist uses, some patients will have a strong reaction. The side effects and symptoms can include:
If the patient experiences any of these side effects after having dental work done, they need to contact their dentist immediately. The patient may require additional medical care to treat these conditions.
4 Ways to Get Rid of Numbness from Anesthetics Faster
To get rid of the numbness from anesthetics faster, patients need to make sure they are well hydrated by drinking plenty of water before and after undergoing treatment at the dentist’s office. Drinking more fluids helps bring down blood sugar levels. Doing this, in turn, makes it easier for people who’ve been given anesthetics to metabolize drugs like lidocaine more quickly, because they have less insulin resistance.
People who are about to get dental work done should also try eating foods high in magnesium before getting an injection of a numbing agent, as this will cause higher blood flow throughout their body, including through any tissues affected by the drug. Here are a few more ways to get rid of dental numbness:
1. Massage the Jaw
Massaging the face around the jaw can help with circulation after getting an anesthetic. Before rubbing the jaw, a patient should use a warm compress to relieve numbness from dental work. A warm compress helps increase blood flow in the affected area, while a massage increases blood flow specifically to your mouth, lips, and face to stimulate circulation.
A patient should always wash their hands before touching anything near their mouth. Ensuring their hands are clean is especially necessary if the patient has open wounds or stitches from the dental procedure.
2. Increase Activity
Physical activity, in general, is crucial for overall health and wellbeing, according to the American Heart Association. Further studies show that increased activity levels can improve healing times and circulation. It can also increase a patient’s metabolism, which will also work to get the body to process anesthetics quicker.
Patients must ask their dentist if it is safe to engage in any physical activity after a dental procedure. If the dentists say it is okay, patients can stimulate blood flow by being more active.
3. Take a Nap or Go to Bed
If a patient continues to struggle with numbness after a dental procedure, sometimes the easiest way to get past feeling it and worrying about it is to take a nap and allow the numbness to recede.
4. Have Patience
There are many types of dental procedures that require varying amounts of numbing medication, and several factors will determine how long the sensation of numbness will last. Based on their metabolism, weight, age, etc., different people will have different levels of sensitivity.
Patients can avoid any potential unexpected discomfort after a dental procedure by speaking to the dentist about how long they can expect the numb feeling in their mouth to last. Knowing this will help patients be more comfortable about the length of time it takes for the medications to wear off.
What Patients Need to Know About Dental Nerve Damage
In rare cases, it’s possible that the dentist might hit a nerve with the needle. When this occurs, trauma to the dental nerves can range from moderate to severe. Any changes to taste or function in the time after a dental procedure can result from a dental nerve injury. Typically, it can cause damage to one or all of these nerves:
Patients often ask what dental nerve damage feels like. The answer is that it depends on the severity of the injury. Also, it depends on which nerve was damaged. 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.
Dental Numbness Reversal: Pros and Cons
In certain cases, medication can reverse the effects of dental numbing agents. Patients looking for a way to get rid of Novocain numbness or make lidocaine wear off faster should talk to their dentist about this reversal injection.
The FDA has approved only one intravenous medication for reversing the effects of anesthetics. The name of this medication is phentolamine mesylate. It works to speed up the return of natural sensations. How exactly phentolamine mesylate does this is still a bit of a mystery, but it’s believed to increase blood flow to the affected area.
In some rare cases, phentolamine mesylate can cause side effects. These side effects include lowering blood pressure and causing irregular heartbeats. These conditions could lead to more severe events. When visiting the dentist, patients must be sure they discuss any history of cardiovascular disease they have.
Medical professionals agree that the use of phentolamine mesylate in children under three years old or those weighing 33 pounds or less is irresponsible. Also, if a dental procedure, such as surgery, produces soft tissue, nerve, or bone pain, often referred to as “stingy sensory loss,” doctors may not recommend phentolamine mesylate.