Question

Sitting in the dentist’s chair, Larry nervously thought about hisdental procedure which involved drilling out the decayed area ofhis tooth and then inserting an amalgam (filling). Before theprocedure, the dentist “numbed the area” by injecting a localanesthetic into the nerve pathway of the tooth. Much to Larry’ssurprise and relief, he felt no pain during the drilling andfilling. Explain how the anesthetic prevented the transmission ofpain sensations to the brain.