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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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General Anaesthesia During Wisdom Teeth Removal

Hi, I d like to know about the general anaesthesia during wisdom teeth removal. What are the risks with this type of operation and what could go wrong? Is there anything to worry about regarding the breathing tube and getting the right amount of oxygen, and how would you know if you did not recieve enough oxygen? Will health professionals inform the patient if anything like this happened?
Mon, 15 Oct 2012
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Dentist 's  Response
Hello
Welcome to HCM
General anesthesia is rarely used now a days for dental procedures. One of the reasons for this is that IV sedation with midazolam works so well for nearly everyone, and is extremely safe. Each general anaesthetic carries a certain amount of risk.Its disadvantages are:-
- GA depresses the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. For some groups of medically compromised patients, it is contraindicated for elective procedures.
-Laboratory tests, chest x-rays and ECG are often required before having elective GA, because of the greater risks involved.
-You can’t drink or eat for 6 hours before the procedure (otherwise, vomiting is possible and this would be very dangerous during GA)
-GA introduces a number of technical problems for the operator (i. e. dentist), especially when a “breathing tube” is involved: the tongue is brought forward more into the dentist’s way by the airway tubing, the muscles are paralysed so the operator is working against a dead weight all the time and there are postural problems because the patient can’t be moved about much.
Still if you want to for it then it s mostly conscious sedation using nitrous oxide & oxygen.
Consult your dentist prior to going for it.

Take Care
Regards
Dr.Neha
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Dentist Dr. Geoffrey Ward's  Response
Hello and thank you for your questions.
In laymen's terms: with GA in dental surgeries we mostly place the tube down your nose and into your trachea to keep the tube out of the way of the mouth. You have heavy sedatives that paralyze you and put you to sleep. The machines attached to the tube breaths for you, monitors your heart, your blood pressure, you level of consciousness and the amount of oxygen getting absorbed and delivered to your brain. If you were not getting the right amount of oxygen your pulse oximetry would decrease, the anesthesiologist would see this and make the proper corrections. Generally we keep you at 98-100% oxygen saturation. When you get down to 95% the machines start making noises to let us know to increase it if needed.

The risks of death increase with general anesthesia and is normally not recommended for most cases. Generally you can get conscious sedation which allows you to respond to commands, you are awake, breath for yourself but the medications give you amnesia and you don't remember the procedure. IV Conscious sedation is much safer than GA. The next level lower would be nitrous oxide and halcion pills. The next level would just be Local anesthetic.

The health professional has to have you sign a consent stating that you are aware that death and other harmful side effects are risks involved in general anesthetic procedures. You would be informed if adverse events occurred in the OR as well and they would be documented in your work up files.

Hope this answers your question.

Best wishes and good health.

Dr. Ward
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Dentist Dr. Inderpreet Singh's  Response
why do you need general anaesthesia in the first place. wisdom tooth extraction is a day care minor surgery and can easily be done on local anaesthesia.you may ask for conscious sedation. general anaesthesia is provided by trained anaesthesiologists and poses little or no danger to life in expert hands.
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Dentist Dr. Bindiya Bhaskar's  Response
HELLO AND WELCOME,
first of all i would like to inform you that,usually there is no need of general anaesthesia for extraction os wisdom tooth.by giving local anaesthesia itself we can extract wisdom as it is minor surgical procedure.
have you visited dentist regarding this?
if not,visit your dentist and get it examined clinicaly .get x-ray of tooth also.
this will help to guide whether the extraction is difficult or not depending on the position of tooth.
take also complete antibiotics and analgesics course.
regards
DR.BINDIYA.
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Dentist Dr. Bipin Upadhay's  Response
The wisdom tooth extraction under (general anesthetia) mostly conscious sedation using nitrous oxide and oxygen. the procedure is very safe if there are no respiratory diseases. there is nothing to worry about the breathing tube and you will be fine and will have to rest for 1-2 hours after surgery and can go home (you need to be accompanied by someone) no driving immediately after sedation...most of the times everything will be explained to you before you go for such a surgery or else ask your surgeon about your doubts.
TAKE CARE.
REGARDS,
DR. BIPIN UPADHYAY
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General Anaesthesia During Wisdom Teeth Removal

Hello Welcome to HCM General anesthesia is rarely used now a days for dental procedures. One of the reasons for this is that IV sedation with midazolam works so well for nearly everyone, and is extremely safe. Each general anaesthetic carries a certain amount of risk.Its disadvantages are:- - GA depresses the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. For some groups of medically compromised patients, it is contraindicated for elective procedures. -Laboratory tests, chest x-rays and ECG are often required before having elective GA, because of the greater risks involved. -You can’t drink or eat for 6 hours before the procedure (otherwise, vomiting is possible and this would be very dangerous during GA) -GA introduces a number of technical problems for the operator (i. e. dentist), especially when a “breathing tube” is involved: the tongue is brought forward more into the dentist’s way by the airway tubing, the muscles are paralysed so the operator is working against a dead weight all the time and there are postural problems because the patient can’t be moved about much. Still if you want to for it then it s mostly conscious sedation using nitrous oxide & oxygen. Consult your dentist prior to going for it. Take Care Regards Dr.Neha