Local Anesthetic
Local Anesthetic is a wonderful thing. I can't imagine doing dentistry with out it. Interesting to note that Lidocaine was first synthesized in l943 and used in minor dental surgery. Now let's take a little deeper look into how local anesthetic works. I will try and simplify the process so that you can have a basic understanding you can remove a tooth or do gum surgery with out feeling any type of sharp pain. First you have to understand how we can feel pain. Pain is felt when a stimulus is initiated at the site of injury. Let's use the example of your finger getting slammed by a car door when your little sister is not paying attention. At the speed of light the nerve will conduct an impulse that will tract from the site of injury up to the brain where it will then communicate with all the other organs and tissues. This will allow the body to protect itself from repeating the injury. The network of nerves tracts throughout the whole body. Now if you were to cut