Here's some stuff you probably didn't know about the "laughing gas" you get from the dentist. I just finished taking my Nitrous Oxide competency exam and decided to pass along the more interesting trivia to you folks.
Let me know your thoughts or any funny stories involving laughing gas. Maybe next year I'll give away a free nitrous oxide treatment to the person with the best story. Maybe.
- It was discovered in the late 1770's by Joseph Priestly. In 1779 Sir Humphrey Davey was the first human to inhale it and described it as "very pleasurable" and "euphoric." He was the one who coined the term laughing gas.
It wasn't originally used in a medical setting. From 1800-1844 it was mainly used at social gatherings and sideshows for entertainment.
- In 1844 a dentist named Horace Wells was attending a demonstration. A peculiar incident happened involving a volunteer who inhaled the gas and began freaking out. (Not everybody reacts the same, and some people really don't like it.) Anyway, this guy started running around the room and gashed his leg open. Horace the dentist astutely observed that the man didn't even react to his wound - as though he didn't feel any pain. The next day Horace had his dentist buddy extracted his abscessed tooth using the gas. Horace felt no pain and proclaimed this to be "the greatest discovery ever made."
Originally the dentists had difficulty in delivering high concentrations of the gas due to the crude delivery systems available to them. What were these delivery systems? Ox bladders. (Don't click unless you really want to see an ox bladder.)
Wells, who is credited with the discovery of anesthesia, became addicted to the laughing gas and committed suicide at age 33.
- The exact mechanism of nitrous oxide is still unknown.
Let me know your thoughts or any funny stories involving laughing gas. Maybe next year I'll give away a free nitrous oxide treatment to the person with the best story. Maybe.
6 comments:
I had laughing gas when my wisdom teeth were removed and for some reason I lost control of my right arm. It would randomly fly up and hit the tray that was holding all of the dentist's tools. Finally, someone decided it would be a good idea to tuck it tightly between my body and the side of the chair. I also went cross-eyed towards the end of the procedure. I'm assuming that's got something to do with the laughing gas, but maybe not. I just remember being asked to initial some form when it was all over, and I couldn't figure out which of the two papers I was seeing was the "real" one.
Nitrogen oxide was actually discovered in 1772 by Daniel Rutherford.
My textbook says "Joseph Priestly has been credited with both the discovery of oxygen and nitrous oxide gas in the late 1770’s."
and cites this source:
Smith WDA: Under the influence: a history of nitrous oxide and oxygen anaesthesia, London, 1982,
Macmillan Publishers Ltd
I'll update my post to say "1770's" instead of "1770".
Daniel Rutherford's wikipedia page credits him with the isolation of nitrogen in 1772, perhaps that's what you're thinking of?
I remember Steph doing a lot of other crazy things the weekend her wisdom teeth came out like applauding the waiter for dropping all the plates :)
That's amazing Bruce. Those people over at Hilton Head dentists must be head and shoulders above the competition if they are using nitrous during wisdom teeth extractions and root canal treatment. I appreciate you enriching my blog with your comment. [Checks to see where this visitor originated] - oh, wait, you're in the Philippines and you're being paid to spam the blogosphere on behalf of that sellout dentist.
Sometimes I long for the days when it was considered unethical for a dentist to advertise.
Post a Comment