Reversing soft tissue anesthesia

Dental procedures are often done with the patient under local anesthesia, usually produced by lidocaine. The pulpal anesthesia lasts about an hour, but the soft tissue anesthesia lasts much longer —between 3 and 5 hours. Since the average dental appointment is just 51 minutes, patients experience numbness in their lips, cheek, and tongue long after their dental appointment is over. This impairs their ability to eat, drink, and speak and can increase the risk of biting their soft tissues ina dvertently.
Source: Dental Abstracts - Category: Dentistry Tags: Inquiry Source Type: research