I went to the dentist this morning and half of my face is
still numb, even though it’s almost 1:30 pm as I write this. That’s what I love
most about going to the dentist, is walking around with a numb half-face for
the rest of the day. No, seriously, it sure does beat the drill.
The dentist asked me if I am a natural redhead. I am not,
but it runs in my mother’s family, so it’s definitely lurking around in my
genes just waiting to emerge in the form of a pale, freckly baby who doesn’t
look like his father. Dr. Drill was interested because I needed two shots of
Novacaine in the jaw and then two more applied directly to the tooth in
question, which is why I’m still numb four hours later. Apparently redheads
need more anesthesia than blondes and brunettes, and he also thinks I have the complexion of a natural ginger.
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| It's just the light in here, Doc. Image credit: Dental Supply |
People have been attempting to numb pain during surgical
procedures since
the dawn of human history, but have only really gotten it right in the past
couple of centuries. The ancient Babylonians used a mixture of gum mastic and
henbane seed to treat painful dental caries. Henbane, or “stinking
nightshade,” was also historically
used in magic potions because of its effects, which included
hallucinations, flushed skin, restlessness and dilated pupils. The priestesses
of Apollo in ancient Greece used it to consult the oracles. Some believe it to
have been the poison
used to kill Hamlet’s father.
Opium
was another popular early anesthetic, as was mandrake, another
hallucinogenic nightshade used in magic potions. It is poisonous. Legend has it
that the mandrake plant screams
when dug up, and that anyone who hears this scream will be killed. Early
texts recommended digging it up halfway, tying it to a dog, and then running
away, so that the dog pulls up the root and dies instead.
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| I wonder how many people lost dogs this way. |
Ancient Chinese surgeon Hua Tuo, who lived from about 145 to
220 AD, is said to have concocted a formula
for general anesthetic from wine and herbal extracts, which allowed him to
induce unconsciousness in patients and perform major surgery. The formula for
the anesthetic was lost upon his death.
Throughout the Middle Ages in Europe, various herbal tonics
were used to render patients unconscious or at least take the edge off during
surgical procedures. These tonics typically included such ingredients as
henbane, opium, lettuce, mulberry juice, hemlock, ivy and mandrake. Medieval
English surgeons used a potion known as “dwale,”
which contained vinegar, bryony root, lettuce and bile, as well as hemlock,
opium, and henbane. Dwale was often administered by caregivers, such as wives
and mothers, as well as by surgeons, although the hemlock in the mixture indeed
caused death in some cases.
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| They wouldn't have heard about the death of Socrates; they didn't have Google. |
Scientists began to discover the anesthetic properties of
things like nitrous oxide in
the 18th century. The first person to notice the pain-relief
potential of nitrous oxide was not a surgeon, but a physicist, Humphry Davy. In
the early 19th century, Japanese surgeon Hanaoka Seishu used his
knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine to recreate
what he believed was the ancient general anesthetic potion used by Hua Tuo.
Whether or not his potion, which he called tsusensan, really was the same as
that used by Hua Tuo, it seems to have worked; in 1804 Hanaoka performed the
first documented surgery under general anesthetic, a partial mastectomy to
treat the breast cancer of 60-year-old Kan Aiya. By 1835, Hanaoka had performed
more than 150 such operations.
In the Western world, physicians began experimenting with
things like morphine, nitrous oxide, ether and chloroform as anesthetics in
the early 19th century. Early surgeons held what they called “ether
frolics,” where audience members were invited to try out the ether. By the
1840s, nitrous oxide had become a popular dental anesthetic. Chloroform
gradually replaced ether as a general anesthetic throughout the latter part of
the 19th century, although it, too, was phased out when it was found
to cause fatal heart palpitations. Of course, the 20th century saw
the proliferation of injectable and inhalable anesthetics that mostly don’t kill
people at all.
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| And are definitely better than a screaming root. |
