What kind of person would do well in dentistry without local?

Older person: I am guessing you mean local anesthesia? Most of the time my older patients who don't have as much pulp (nerve) in the tooth do good without local. As people age, the pulp chamber tends to shrink and the teeth don't have as much "feeling".

A few...: I have a number of patients that i perform invasive dentistry on without using local anesthetic. The common characteristic is they were born in a foreign country and that's how they did it before! if you are local (pun intended!), and are considering going without getting numb, have your dentist ready with local as a standby...In case you change your mind during the procedure, a short one i hope.

Rare: It is a rare person that can tolerate removing decay without anesthetic and even if they are willing to try to do a filling without anesthetic, unless it is very superficial, i prefer to use some type of pain relief.

Not many!: I have been in practice for 28 years and have only worked on two people that could tolerate treatment without anesthesia. Just get numb and save yourself and your dentist a lot of frustration.

Comfort: The majority of patients do well without a local anesthetic. Your dentist can make a judgement call on smaller restorations and decide with you. If you have great anxiety about the proceedure you might do better getting the tooth numb.

1 at a laser dentist: A laser dentist can desensitize a tooth with a laser and then use a hard tissue laser to remove decay and prepare it for a filling with a local or a drill. About 90% of the time front teeth & about 50% of back teeth don't need a local - adults or children. If used with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) the % is higher.

Short answer- no one: Unless your over 70 and your pulp(nerve) is very shrunken away, if it's anything more involved than a very small filling, your going to be hurting. Local anesthetic is made for a reason, so you don't need to be in pain. If your dentist's injections hurt badly, find a new one. Also, if you don't like having that numb feeling for hours after the visit, ask him/her to use a shorter acting anesthetic.

Less with Lasers: Laser dentistry has eliminated the use of local anesthetic in my office ~ 90 percent of the time for routine filling work for 9 years now. Otherwise patients have varying pain thresholds and tolerances. I bought my practice from an old -school dds who rarely used local and i was amazed how many patients would get work done without it. Individual variability is the most important aspect here.

Local or Not: It depends on the depth of decay. Generally, in my practice 60 percent prefer no anesthetic. It can be given anytime if the sensitivity starts to occur. If lesions ( decay) are caught early no local is needed most of the time. If you are a bit anxious about the proceedure i would recommend a local anesthetic right from the beginning. The dentist can first put a flavored numbing gel.

Elderly people: Older people tend to have tooth nerves that have receded down the tooth, rendering the tooth less sensitive to temperature and less sensitive to drilling on the teeth. Some procedures do not require local, as in sealants. Also, if a tooth has had root canal treatment, then there is no nerve inside the tooth to feel pain. So a tooth with a previous root canal may not need local.