or do it like me and never get anything and live with the little pain

If your cavity isn't too bad they can do it without a shot, I've had a few done without a shot and it doesn't hurt.

spurgeonryan said: crissindahouse said: or do it like me and never get anything and live with the little pain I have put it off for a bit, but I know i may have a cavity. It is not bad yet. I will just take a bunch of Aspirin before I go or something.

if it is "only" a cavity i wouldn't take anything. it will maybe hurt a little bit but not sure what's the problem wit that. it only hurts for some seconds or a minute and not for 20 hours. and it's not even a given that it will hurt.

Oh dear God! If it's a surface cavity, sure you can go without anything to knock out the pain, but anything too far into the dentin and it'll hurt like he'll because of the nerves.

That said. Gas knocks you out. There are two problems with that. 1) some people don't come out of it, and end up going into cardiac failure. 2) it takes longer to recover after the procedure. That's, they either have to try to move you to a recovery room or lose the room for the period of time you need to come out of it and get on your feet.

Neither problem exists with the shot since it's local.

What do you mean it's hard? All you have to say is "I want the gas" and they give you the gas, every time. I tend to get the gas AND get a shot. The gas just makes the whole experience a little more enjoyable.

There are risks with every medicine.  Tell me, what is the actual risk of cardiac arrest?  Maybe you can skim the news and find one or two such incidents, but I'm sure that millions of people each year use the gas.  Until I see a reliable statistic saying otherwise I think the risk is negligable.

And it doesn't take long to recover after the procedure.  It happens almost immediately.  As soon as you breathe normal air you come back to normality.

Gas is for wusses. Man up!

I've only ever been completely knocked out by it.  When I was a child.  As an adult (I went 21 years without a cavity) they just used shots.  Shots don't work great is all I'll say. 

I'm not saying there is a HUGE risk, I'm saying there is a risk.  Liability insurance, not actual incidents of events probably determine use more than anything else.

In 10 years or less, the'll inject the filling with a liquid gel, cap your tooth, and wait while the damage is repaired through regrowth.  They're already working on trials.  Same thing with grey/gray hair.  They're working on a treatment that'll reverse the biological process that causes the body to stop metabolizing hydrogen peroxide.