Patient Secrets- Dentist Don't Know

Dear Dentist, Do you want to know a Secret? Well you should!

When you anesthetize an area of your patients mouth, what are you doing?

Do you not believe that you are effectively creating an environment where the cues or signals to the brain are getting short circuited or not sent? Would it be too much to assume that the cues are not making it to your patients brain? Could we, therefore, assume, that there are not cues enough for a patient to open and/or close their mouth?


I couldn't cue my mouth to close or open. There were no signals. However, my eyes could do the cuing with the help of a mirror. They could cue my own brain.

This didn't happen by looking at the assistants contortionist face, nor by looking at my dear dentists expressions. It didn't happen with verbal cues from them either.

Only when I could see my own reflection in a mirror with my own eyes, so that my brain could get the message did the connection become firm enough to send out the cues.


What a great indicator- A simple mirror + the patients brain = the cue to get the mouth to open or close appropriately. WHOOHOO!

Guess it's not a secret anymore. Tell your dentist before she does the amalgam removal/extraction surgery. She dosen't know the MIRROR+BRAIN=MOUTH cooperation thing, but she will want to know. Help her out, send her here.