This is probably old hat to some of you old salts, but I just had my first entire day without administering any local anesthetic (except for those lean days in the beginning, twentyplus years ago).

I saw 12 patients for restorative procedures today (plus a few consults and hygiene) by 5:00 and did something like twenty restorations with the Er:YAG laser and nobody needed anesthetic. I didn’t have any old amalgams to remove or really DEEP decay (but a few were deeper than I was expecting).

Unfortunately, my day doesn’t really end until 8:00, and I just had to stick a patient for several restorations that will be near the pulps.

Anyway, just thought I’d share that. It’s pretty cool, considering that not too long ago I thought this was mostly bogus …

Granted, some of these could’ve been done with no anesthetic using AA or fissurotomy burs, but that’s not the point. I hate sticking people with needles as much as they hate being stuck with them! A whole day without scaring or hurting people … who’da thunk?

— Don