Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I recently had a somewhat terrifying wisdom tooth extraction while being put under nitrous oxide. I read beforehand that nitrous oxide is supposed to relax you or even give you a euphoric high, so I went in feeling very calm.
After the initial administration (while they were giving me local), I started feeling tingles and kind of glazing over (the noises around me sort of played on repeat in my head which I found really scary). I think I may have lost consciousness or all sensation. I dreamed/hallucinated (not sure which it was) that something really bad was happening and completely lost track of time. Suddenly, I heard and felt the surgeon wiggling my upper wisdom tooth, and my sensations were coming back, but I was really confused about what was going on and starting having a MAJOR panic attack. I was 100% sure that the world was ending and that I was gonna die. The whole dental office must have heard me (I wasn't aware of myself screaming though) because someone from another room came in to angrily shush me (not sure how they expected that to help seeing as how I was TOTALLY out of it). The nurse held my hand for maybe 5 minutes before I calmed down. I asked if the surgery was done and she said they had only administered the anesthetic...
I don't have a history of anxiety or anything (never had anything close to a panic attack) although I am someone who sometimes overthinks things especially when stressed and likes to generally be in control, so maybe the feeling of not being able to control my body freaked me out. The nitrous might have also been cranked a little high. I'm still a little traumatized by this event and was just wondering if this is normal? Why did this happen to me when the opposite was meant to happen?
After the initial administration (while they were giving me local), I started feeling tingles and kind of glazing over (the noises around me sort of played on repeat in my head which I found really scary). I think I may have lost consciousness or all sensation. I dreamed/hallucinated (not sure which it was) that something really bad was happening and completely lost track of time. Suddenly, I heard and felt the surgeon wiggling my upper wisdom tooth, and my sensations were coming back, but I was really confused about what was going on and starting having a MAJOR panic attack. I was 100% sure that the world was ending and that I was gonna die. The whole dental office must have heard me (I wasn't aware of myself screaming though) because someone from another room came in to angrily shush me (not sure how they expected that to help seeing as how I was TOTALLY out of it). The nurse held my hand for maybe 5 minutes before I calmed down. I asked if the surgery was done and she said they had only administered the anesthetic...
I don't have a history of anxiety or anything (never had anything close to a panic attack) although I am someone who sometimes overthinks things especially when stressed and likes to generally be in control, so maybe the feeling of not being able to control my body freaked me out. The nitrous might have also been cranked a little high. I'm still a little traumatized by this event and was just wondering if this is normal? Why did this happen to me when the opposite was meant to happen?
