Reaction at the dentist. WTH was it?

So I just got back from having a crown put on had a very odd reaction that stumped everyone there and the dentists that my dentist called. He gave me a low does of the novocaine and everything was fine. He walked away to check on another patient while I was numbing up. Suddenly my jaw locked, but I wasn't concerned because I figured it was a spasm and would pass. Then I had trouble swallowing and had an intense pressure from just under my eyes down to the middle of my throat. That's when I started to freak a little and I sat up to find someone. One of the hygienist walked past the door way and waved and I motioned for her to come in. She ran in and I managed to tell her what was wrong and she called the dentist. When he heard my jaw locked he said it was a spasm and started to massage my jaw. But when he found out about the pressure and everything else he stopped and turned white. He told her to keep rubbing my jaw, and call him if she needed to that he was going to "Check my x rays." I knew he was freaking out and trying to find out what was wrong. It lasted 10 or 15minutes and scared the crap out of me. The hygienist said my face was super red and was very concerned. Finally it started to relax away and I was able to talk open my mouth more than just a tiny bit. Apparently he called several other dentists and none of them had ever seen this. After it was over I started laughing hysterically and had tears rolling down my face. Normal reaction for me when I am scared smurfless.

Anyways, has anyone EVER had this happen? I have had Novocaine before and NEVER had this reaction, especially with such a small amount. The shot did not hurt at all, in fact, the odd part was, I wasn't numb until after the episode was over. My dentist is going to do some research and see if he can figure it out, but now I am a little nervous to get anymore work done. I grind my teeth bad at night so I crack them and need them fixed ever so often.   So odd.

my guess would be an allergy to something that was used.

god, that sounded scary  

My jaw has done that a few times before, never anything else that happened to you though, you might be allergic.

Sounds like some sort of allergy. That or maybe where the injection was located triggered something like a wrong nerve? Wow glad ur ok though.

Maybe he got it in a nerve or used something other then Novocain I would think an allergy would have caused your throat to close/ anaphylaxis in that situation

Thankfully it did not close all the way, just enough that I had issues swallowing, but I could breathe from my nose, I just felt intense pressure. I know you can develop an allergy to something you have had many times. That was my guess, but I think he is afraid of something being wrong with the Novocaine, so he is checking into that too. We all wondered about the nerve thing too. Next time I need work done they are going to have an epi pen near by in case it happens again on a larger scale.

Thank you all for commenting, I was just looking to see if someone else had this happen and knew exactly what caused it. He has been in practice for 30 something years and is the first dentist I have ever felt comfortable with. No matter what the cause, here's to hoping that NEVER happens again.