Dr. Hall
I am a fairly young female who has extensive dental problems mainly due to having a high tolerance for novocain. Therefore, making every trip to the dentist horrifyingly painful. After a while I just got discouraged and stopped going. Now I am older and what to take full control of my dental hygiene. I have 5 or more teeth that need to be extracted but haven’t done so cause I immediately want them replaced with preferably implants. My goal is to have heathly teeth with a beautiful smile. Since I live in New York, do you recommend I out-source to another state to keep the cost as low as possible?
– Nina from New York
Nina,
Manhattan has some of the best cosmetic dentists in the country, but it is also a very high fee area. Yes, if you want to save money and don’t mind travelling, there are excellent cosmetic dentists in either New Jersey, or on Long Island.
Interestingly, over the years when I have looked, I haven’t found a cosmetic dentist I wanted to recommend in any other boroughs of New York City except Queens. So apparently really good cosmetic dentists have no interest in locating in Brooklyn, for example.
But I wanted to address your high tolerance for novocain. This is nothing more than a higher level of anxiety when you’re getting dental work, and what you need is not more novocain but some type of relaxant. I know this subject very well, because I had a special interest in treating this type of patient, and the question I asked to find out if people needed a little nitrous oxide or possibly an oral sedative was, “How does novocain work for you?” In every case, where a patient had what they felt was a high resistance to novocain, using a little nitrous oxide, or perhaps an oral sedative before the appointment took care of the problem, and the novocain worked fine.
I also know this subject well because I am one of these patients also. I’ve had some very stressful experiences in the dental chair as a patient, so I tend to get anxious when I have any work done and the novocain wears off very quickly on me, unless I have some nitrous oxide. You can read about this in an article I wrote for Dental Economics about dental fear.
So look for a dentist who has nitrous oxide available. That could mean a world of difference to you for your future dental care.
– Dr. Hall
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About David A. Hall
Dr. David A. Hall was one of the first 40 accredited cosmetic dentists in the world. He practiced cosmetic dentistry in Iowa, and in 1990 earned his accreditation with the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. He is now president of Infinity Dental Web, a company in Mesa, Arizona that does advanced internet marketing for dentists.
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