Hi Anaphylaxing,

I react to lidocaine too, and Dr. Afrin told my dentist he wouldn't use any anesthetic on me, if possible.  I just had one filling done without anesthesia and it went fine.  They put some kind of flouride on the gumline of one of my teeth though, and I reacted to that. I accidentally swallowed some of it and couldn't rinse my mouth right away.  I had premedicated with prednisone, Allegra, Zantac, and Benadryl. The prednisone was really kicking in for me at that time too, so I was already having some fast, pounding heart issues.  Next time, I will just take a bigger dose of prednisone the day before, and a smaller dose the morning of my dental work.  I also felt weird when they put the bonding glue on my tooth, even though it didn't touch anything else.  I could taste it.  I hope you are feeling okay.  --Sarah

This may be a dumb question, but are you sure there wasn't any preservative in the lidocaine?  My dermatologist had to special order it for me without preservatives.  Lately I've noticed that sometimes the preservative and "other" ingredients are listed separately from the primary ingredient.  I noticed that particularly on bottles of eye drops.  The preservatives were listed on a different side from the ketotifen they listed as the "active" ingredient.

I haven't had a systemic reaction to it, but I do get local itching that can last for some weeks after having lidocaine.  I don't know if it's the mast cells and inflammation causing the itching or if it's the lidocaine.