Dental pain and your brain

Your brain plays a pivotal role in your oral comfort. While we’ve relied on local anesthesia for well over a hundred years, we’re only now beginning to understand how the brain functions in relation to dental pain.

Twenty eight patients volunteered for a placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study when various measures of stimuli were applied to the the left mandibular canine with and without anesthesia. Electric tooth stimulation continued for 16 minutes during which subjects indicated pain offset by pressing an alarm ball. The MRI details revealed that with anesthesia, the brain activity slowed at sights normally activated as pain subsided after procedures lacking anesthesia.

Your brain is specially wired to cope with dental pain but thanks to anesthesia, it doesn’t have to! We offer sedation dentistry that will set your mind–and your brain–at ease!