dental issue...burn on roof of mouth after dental work?

My guess is the coffee or any hot food that you might have taken in has ultimately caused the burn.

If anesthetic goes to too quickly, it could bruise the area, but not burn it like you described. Infrared heater thing that you are referring to doesn't emit heat, so there's no way it can burn it. I guess your gum/roof of the mouth(palate) was initially traumatized a little by getting anesthetic and before it completely healed, you might have eaten something hard or sharp (like a chip) that could traumatized the area and 120 degree coffee might did a trick.

Don't worry too much, gums/palate heal faster than anything in the body. Just avoid anything hot or spicy until this issue is resolved. On rare occasion, you might get an infection, so if the area starts to hurt or smells nasty, go to see your dentist for antibiotics.

Additional Info: After the dental treatment, a lot of my patients eat "warm", but not necessarily " hot" soups and I notice that it burns the palate. When you have a shot, especially on the palate, palate gets traumatized and any warm or hot or sharp(chips) can further traumatize the area.

From your post, there's nothing in the dental office that can possibly cause the "burn" that you described. Here's few examples dentist can cause burn ---> Patient's palate can be burned if you get a traditional rootcanal obturation without Rubber dam (which nobody in USA do) or spill the whitening gel during the laser whitening (which you didn't do) or put a hot wax rim for the denture (which doesn't apply to you).... other than that (I am stretching all the malpractice that dentist can do) unless dentist is crazy, there's absolutely no way he/she can cause your palate to burn like that.

So back to your roof of the mouth,

Even if you lower the temperature of the coffee, it still is hot enough to burn the traumatized palate that is sensitive to temperature. You didn't drink ICE COFFEE, right? that's why I told you it could be the coffee that ultimately caused the burn. You might be thinking that it was already burned but there's a chance that you might have confused the burned sensation with a sensation of traumatized palate.... which is very hard to tell if your anesthesia is still working. But wait... anesthesia should have worned out after 2-3 hours unless your dentist used marcaine or other long lasting anesthetic which nobody will use unless you are getting a root canal or surgical extraction or any procedure taking long time.

Normally, burned palate should resolve within 24 hours unless you continuously traumatize it by scraping it or touching it.

Only thing I can tell you is that if you are trying to find a fault from your dentist, I highly doubt that you can find any that can fly. True, He/she unintentionally traumatized your palate due to lidocaine/local injection but that's something that can't be avoided if you are getting a dental procedure.

Anyway, good luck!

A dentist or dental hygienist would be able to tell you what it may be specifically by looking at it, but since I'm going by what you're saying and describing, I would also assume that you may have burned your gums, it may have been oil of cloves- however, it has to be exposed to the tissue long enough for it to slough off (you said the "burn" is on the roof of your mouth), but it may be a possibility. The curing light that was used is not "hot" enough to cause a burn. So my best guess is that since you had an injection on the roof of your mouth, it may be the anesthetic with a high concentration lidocaine or articaine (for example). Or if the anesthetic was injected too quickly-especially on the roof of your mouth, this would cause the tissue to distend from the bone. This is my best guess until clinically confirmed by a dentist.

If it is coming from your teeth, then go see a dentist. You'd have to be damn brave to incise the roof of your mouth, or drunk! All you are doing is relieving the abscess in the roof of your mouth as it builds up rather than attacking the cause, i.e. the tooth. As you seem to have found out, antibiotics are of limited use too. If you had an infected splinter in your arm, is this how you would treat it too? A dentist can establish drainage thru the TOOTH and CLEAN out the bacteria in the canal so that your situation improves i.e. root canal therapy; or you may wish to have an extraction.