Case Study
A 23-year-old woman went to see her dentist for a regular checkup. During the visit, the doctor discovered that her lower third molars, which had appeared to be erupting fine on her last visit, may be contributing to the crowding in the patient’s mouth. He was afraid that they might eventually cause her discomfort and recommended that she have the third molars extracted. She agreed, and returned the following week for the procedure.
Before the dentist began to work, the patient told him that she had a low pain tolerance and asked that he make sure that her mouth was fully anesthetized. The dentist promised that he would take care of it, and then proceeded to inject the anesthetic in the mucous membrane on both sides of the patient’s mouth. The teeth were removed without incident. He then warned her not to attempt to chew any food until the anesthetic had worn off and she was able to feel her tongue and lower lip again, lest she damage them by chewing on them.
Case Study Questions
- What injection would the dentist give this patient in order to prevent pain during the extraction of the lower third molars?
- Which nerve caused the patient’s lower lip and the tongue to be numb?
- Identify the branch of the IAN or nerve for each location.
- When dental work is performed on the lower teeth, a nerve block is often needed to produce complete local anesthesia of all the teeth in a quadrant. The same is not true for the upper teeth. Why not? What other injection technique can be used to anesthetize maxillary teeth?