Can Dental Freezings Cause Anxiety

[[Ho...]]

I had a dental filling on Tuesday and had a major panic attack on Wednesday?  Could the attack have come from the freezing?

[[Be...]]

What do you mean by "freezing", HG?  Are you referring to the Novacaine shots?  Regardless of te procedure, it could be that your anxiety and the extra stimulation were contributing factors.  Of course, with benzos, you can never really know for sure. 

[[pi...]]

Hi HockeyGal,

 

If you mean the injection they give to numb for the procedure then yes, it can cause a revving up of symptoms if the injection had epinephrine in it.  I have never been able to tolerate epinephrine even pre benzo days.  It causes my heart to race and I end up with a terrible headache.  You can let your dentist know, I did, and he gives me injections without it.

 

These feelings should settle down with time though, not permanent.

 

pianogirl

[[Lo...]]

Not everyone will agree or will  have had this experience, but I have Environmental Illness (allergies, reactions to foods, gluten sensitivity - Celiac disease -  chemicals, scents, so many things).

I discovered the hard way, by having a massive 4 hour anxiety/panic attack) that I react to the preservative and to the epinephrine (adrenaline) that they put in the 'freezing', the novocaine.  I had a bad abscess and the dentist wanted to relieve my pain until he could work on it.  Within a few minutes I was going nuts, sure I was going to die... I had the dentist call my specialist who told him the procedure to lessen the reaction and told him that any freezing I had he had to use a special novocaine that was very pure without the preservative or epinephrine.  I still react a little... I also react to different things he uses during the filling  and to the filling itself depending on what type he uses.  So in my case and others I have talked to, it is possible to have a panic attack triggered by dental work...I have run into a lot of doctors and people who do not believe this is possible, but I have been working with my Specialist for 30 years and have experienced and seen a lot, talked to a lot of others who have similar problems.  It might be worth your looking into it.  (In fact, they tested me and I am sensitive (have to use that and not the word allergic...) to Valium, lucky me.  That is an added reason for me to get off the stuff! (It gives me wave after wave of anxiety attacks every time I take it...)  The pharmacist and doctor called it paradoxical reaction.