Listing specifically what kind of block he gave is a little bit out of my
knowledge base. I know that he gave me two shots not in the back of each jaw
but into the gum directly over the teeth he was going to work on. It worked
fine with the tooth on my right side, didn't have a problem at all with it
not being numb. The one on my left side was the one that was still a bit
sensitive ... that was the filling that was having to be replaced; my
dentist told me he thought I was feeling a bit of heat from the drill
because it was hard for him to judge just how far he was drilling since he
was taking out an old filling (he had his assistant really laying on the
water to that tooth, he said to try to ease the heat); I can buy that
although the feeling of discomfort I always get from dental procedures seems
more like cold than heat or outright pain, the best way I can describe it is
like an electric jolt of dry ice

Anyway, when that tooth was still showing itself to be sensitive, he gave me
a shot in the back of my jaw on my left side, which I took to be a block.
That's when it distinctly got number on my right side, the opposite side,
but did not seem to get any number on my left side where I got the other
shot.

I was just curious about this. I will note, just as an FYI, that it seems I
always have more problems getting completely numb on the left side of my
mouth. Work done on the right side of my mouth is nowhere near as
problematic.