Nitrous Oxide : Experience at Dentist

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas or sweet air,[1] is a chemical compound with the formula N2O. It is an oxide of nitrogen. At room temperature, it is a colorless non-flammable gas, with a slightly sweet odor and taste. It is used in surgery and dentistry for its anesthetic and analgesic effects. It is known as "laughing gas" due to the euphoric effects of inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as a dissociative anesthetic.

en.wikipedia.org...

Hi all,

Wanted to share my little experience while at the dentist's office about a decade ago. I have never shared this with the public but for some reason felt prompted to share this wild experience.

Have a dentist phobia requiring the use of nitrous oxide. It works wonders with my brain but sometimes not so well on the rest of my body : My brain, and spirit can be calm but my body tense like I have something in a vice-grip. Weird , I know. lol

But on with my experience and to make a long story short, after being "put under'' in the chair, after approx. 15 min, I was relaxed talking to the assistant, etc. seeing normal things when suddenly she (the assist.) started becoming separated into atoms and molecules as best I can describe. Things were somewhat swirling in the air and then joining to form. At the time, I was just fascinated by what I was seeing and I, of course, did nOT make mention of this to the lady! She'd think I was off my rocker or something. So I just HAD to keep this to myself.

I just thought the nitrous was a little too much and had caused this but she had already reduced my setting just before I started experiencing this. It was as if I had been enlightened , let in on a little secret from God on how the world truly worked. How things, thoughts form into being, etc.

I saw the world from a different set of eyes that day. In that how creation , matter, molecules. How God manifest life... It was all a wild ride for sure. To see behind the scenes ... Crazy huh?

How our reality works, et al amazes me.
..
Just thought I would share. Has anyone else experienced anything such as this? I would love to hear from you

. Is nitrous oxide safe or a doorway? I need to research this one.

Now I can truly say why they call it a "dissociative anesthetic! "

Thoughts on Nitrous Oxide or experience?
Thanks in advance for your interest.

Nitrous is safe. Not sure what you experienced, but it's not a typical side affect.

If you're not comfortable with the experience, let the doctor know immediately and they can make necessary adjustments. Switching the mixture to pure oxygen will often dissipate all side affects within minutes,

reply to post by ~Vixen~


Hi thank you for your reply. Hmm, not typical? So you don't think it was the nitrous? That would be the only thing I could put the blame on.

Appreciate your response and thoughts.

ETA She had adjusted and turned up the O2 a bit just prior to experience or I might have had to say something..

Interestring story.
I've had Nitrous Oxide before and it had no effect on me whatsoever. I mean it was useless.

At higher doses, NO2 can cause some weird effects with your senses: You hear things like you're in a long tunnel, and you see weird spots and dots while your body buzzes all over. You may also get a bit of a head-achey "hangover" after the fact.

If it felt like the doors of perception opened to you, then cool.

I am a bit ashamed to admit how I know this, but I will give y'all a hint: Whippets.

reply to post by violet


Hi Violet,
Thank you for your response. I have always used the gas.... Had used it many times before. Then came this one and only time ... So, does anyone agree and think that tooo much could cause me to experience this?

Is it at least a possibility? Because what else could have caused this to happen?

reply to post by FissionSurplus


Thanks for your reply, Fission.
Gotcha... although I had to look that one up.
Saw that about D. Moore.

It's just weird after all of the other times of its use, nothing such as this happened before... so why now?

Anyway, thankfully, she did adjust...

I truly thought that maybe others might have had this type of experience as well. The gas has been used for ages now. Surely, I'm not alone in this. But then again , leave it to moi. lol

Again, appreciate your replies.

Administration of Nitrous in dental settings is usually pretty straightfoward, and comes from simple oxygen and nitrogen tanks. The mixture is usually regulated chairside, with a 50/50 ratio. After the procedure I would usually switch to 100% oxygen to clear up any grogginess. Patients usually snap out of it pretty quickly. My only guess would be that the oxygen tank was empty or the doctor decided that a different miture ratio was necessary for comfort. It's really hard to speculate though.

I'm not an expert in administration of nitrous in dental settings though, so you may want to let your dentist know of any concerns. (I'm a MD and my first husband is a dentist who I've assisted a few times)

Originally posted by ~Vixen~
Administration of Nitrous in dental settings is usually pretty straightfoward, and comes from simple oxygen and nitrogen tanks. The mixture is usually regulated chairside, with a 50/50 ratio. After the procedure I would usually switch to 100% oxygen to clear up any grogginess. Patients usually snap out of it pretty quickly. My only guess would be that the oxygen tank was empty or the doctor decided that a different miture ratio was necessary for comfort. It's really hard to speculate though.

I'm not an expert in administration of nitrous in dental settings though, so you may want to let your dentist know of any concerns. (I'm a MD and my first husband is a dentist who I've assisted a few times)

Thank you so much for your informative post, Doc. It was a pretty intense procedure so it was probably upped quite a bit.
And yes, thank you , I will let him of my concerns in the future.

Still no one else has had this experience? Maybe that is a good thing. Guess I am rare, and lucky to be alive then. I thought that maybe it happend often and was possibly a normal thing occuring but guess I was wrong.

Anyways.... appreciate ya, each and every one!

I appreciate the help offered etc however I would really love to hear if someone had a like experience.
This thread looked very dead last night but now I noticed a few flags. This would be because :

1) Either you had a like experience and just do not wish to comment due to inhibitions for one reason or another
or
2) I'm weird .lol well, yeah...you can call me warped. Wouldn't be the first time

OR
3) It is simply that you appreciated me sharing my experience.

Again, begging, lol jk, but please tell me I'm NOT the only one this has happened to. I would love to hear from you!

ETA: Has anyone had this happen to them withOUT being at the Dentist's office?
ANYthing similar?

Thanks in advance.

No I have not reacted like that while in labour, on N2O. In fact it was pretty useless.

BUT I have had a weird experience.
I had just woken in the middle of the night (a few years ago) and I turned over to see everything dark but it was all outlined by dots of light. My eyelids were not open, yet I was seeing through them.
I then saw dots around a 'man', he moved up from the bottom of the bed towards my head, and I waved at him. He smiled at me and waved back at me, and I went back to sleep. I believe he was my guardian angel.

Is that similar?

I think I saw the Matrix?

It definitely wasn't a dream.

Originally posted by AriesJedi

Hi and thanks for your reply AriesJedi. Appreciate ya

No I have not reacted like that while in labour, on N2O. In fact it was pretty useless.

N20 in labor? I'd say that wasss pretty useless... OUCH lol What happened to the epidural?

BUT I have had a weird experience.
I had just woken in the middle of the night (a few years ago) and I turned over to see everything dark but it was all outlined by dots of light. My eyelids were not open, yet I was seeing through them.
I then saw dots around a 'man', he moved up from the bottom of the bed towards my head, and I waved at him. He smiled at me and waved back at me, and I went back to sleep. I believe he was my guardian angel.

Is that similar?

I think I saw the Matrix?

It definitely wasn't a dream.

Thanks for sharing. Guess you could say your experience is somewhat minutely similar. That's pretty wild your seeing this through closed eyes. The dots around the man in an outline? Assuming you had a calm peaceful experience with your waving to him, and thinking guardian angel. Interesting! I believe in angels and you could very well be correct. Somewhat similar but my experience was like a revelation through God's eyes sort of thing ...like in seeing energy force , seeing the atoms of things and people joining to form our reality sort of thing. I was like awestruck in this vision...and was like, wow God, thanks for letting me see how this stuff works. I still as of yet cannot explain it...but I got a taste lol!

Sounds like you had a wonderful experience! Again, thanks for sharing and have a great wkend!

reply to post by SeekerLou


I don't know what the mods will think about this thread with their crazy strict anti drug policy. I will say though, once I was put under anesthesia at the dentist, as a very young kid, and there was some weird reaction and I didn't fully awake for several days. My parents were horrified. I was like a narcoleptic drunk toddler for 3 or so days.

reply to post by GogoVicMorrow


omg bless your heart , GogVic! Bet your parents were about out of their minds with worry.

Hopefully, they won't del this. Nothing promoting here...This thread is mainly questioning about the experience /side effects of a legally administered drug at dentist. So hopefully, they understand no harm done here.

But I did forget that the stuff is abused and my dentist had some tanks stolen from their back storage... Someone had posted earlier that triggered that memory.

So, I'd venture a guess, that you do NOT use gas at dentist ! Are you sure it was the same thing administered? Is this the same anesthetic given during major surgery at a higher dose to knock you out? If so, I wasn't aware of this ... Still learning at 50+ here ...

Reread your post. I see it was dentist. .. but maybe they had to give you other in addition to the gas.

reply to post by SeekerLou


I’ve had a weird experience with N2O…

I was @ 15 years old and getting my wisdom teeth removed (just the teeth…not the wisdom) and I went unconscious.

I thought I was in hell….it was black….I was floating around in the blackness as if I was in outer space. I started having feelings of despair…I thought I was dead and never going to return to the life I knew.

I heard a voice tell me, “open your right eye” and I did. I saw a bright light and a person with a white mask.

I heard giggling…I began to get pissed off.

I yelled out, “GET ME OUT OF HERE, A-HOLE!!!!”

Laughter erupted……

I quickly began to wake up and regain my senses…

The entire staff had a good laugh at my expense that day. They told me they held a conversation with me (I have no recollection).

I’m still leery of N2O to this day!

reply to post by seabag


Appreciate the post! Aha... so I'm not alone in this and it cAN do funky things!

Yeah, anesthesia can mess with the mind. I knew this but not about the N20. Have to share this lol: One time, before my mom's surgery, she was being prepped. They gave her a shot and they started wheeling her out of the room . She saw me standing in the doorway, and said, "I know YOU: I saw you at church last night!" I giggled too... That was my mom and she didn't even know me.

You had a HORRIBLE experience -am soO sorry. Bless your heart! Mine was bliss. Am just glad to know that it most probably was the gas that was the trigger..but am sorry for your experience.

ETA: Rereading sorry tired and in hurry. Oh my...
Makes ya wonder what you said, eh? You were experiencing something horrible but they were laughing? Too weird.... But tis always good to make people laugh!

reply to post by SeekerLou


Now I am extremely curious as to whY you had such a bad experience . Were you under a lot of stress at the time or had you watched a scary movie? How is it that I had such an elation and yours was a horrible nightmare? Would our state of mind influence the effects?