I too, cried during my last cleaning to the point they had to numb my whole mouth because I was coming unglued. I just thought I had become overly sensitive after all the dental work I've had done. I don't have a whole lot of experience in this realm just yet, but I've found Mary Ann to be quite wise with the words already (sorry to put you on the spot, Mary Ann!). I'm also not familiar with all the medications yet as I've only barely tolerated a few short courses of prednisone and live on Advil. I did find out this weekend that a little extra rest made a noticeable difference. Even though I'm not much help with everything else, I do have two ears that work (when they're not ringing) and can offer them to you whenever you need them.

The dental issues, unfortunately, are ongoing, but the pain, at least for me, was not. Most of the nerves in many of my teeth went dead several years ago. In my 20s and 30s, even my early 40s, my dentists always said, "Well, your teeth are very sensitive." Now they say, "Wow, you're a really good patient," which is just shocking to me.

I don't think it's strange to need a lot of lidocaine, or to be very upset by pain. (See my next post.) One thing I didn't realize until a few years ago is that some long-acting formulations of lidocaine have epinephrine, which is a stimulant, and causes rapid heartbeat and anxiety in some individuals, and I think that anxiety can make or sadness more intense. So it never hurts to ask if the dentist has a long-acting version of lidocaine without epinephrine, or just the basic lidocaine if it's a short procedure.