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Violently Shaking/convulsing while under IV sedation

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iwokeupnearthesea

Junior member
Joined
Jul 15, 2011
Messages
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Hello everyone, I am a 19 year old female with crowded teeth, was hoping to finally get braces. I have 3 impacted wisdom teeth and one partially surfaced, I figured since I was getting braces the logical thing to do would be to get them removed before I straightened them. I have always been terrified of the dentist, hence why my braces have been put off since elementary. I do not like people placing their hands into my mouths, or weird objects. My gag reflex is sensitive, and along with my already existing phobia of the dentist I've been dealing with panic disorder the past two years.

My exam at the dentist went horrible- resulting in me having a panic attack and completely embarrassed. They referred me to a oral surgeon to go under iv sedation. I went to the consultation with him two days ago and they were an amazing team of people, the surgeon has a lot of experience and the staff and nurses were incredibly nice, and calmed me. They had an opening for today and despite my extreme fears I said screw it and made an appointment for this morning. I got four hours of sleep prior, felt completely miserable and overwhelmingly anxious before I left the house, and when I got there. I followed all of their directions exactly- no eating/drinking 8 hours, no nail polish on nails, etc. First they walked me back in the room and started to get me set up. It was very cold in the office and I was extremely scared so I was shaking a bit, they started me out with laughing gas which completely calmed me down. I remember one of the nurses rubbing my head and scalp, them covering me in blankets, and blacking out. It felt like I slept for hours, and when I did wake up they were ripping everything off of me and I had no idea what was going on. All I remember after that they told me they couldn't proceed because I wouldn't stop shaking, and waking up on the couch at my parents.

My mother told me that I scared the living hell out of everyone- the staff, nurses, and the surgeon. While I was under he rushed out to speak with my mom and asked her if I had any serious health issues that I didn't mention, or if there was a possibility of any. I called them back to have them fully explain what happened today, because I don't remember much. When I called I got to speak directly with the surgeon, and one of the nurses. They all asked how I was doing, and if I was feeling any better. They told me as soon as I went under, I started to shake violently and convulse, my heart rate shot up dramatically- they thought I was having a seizure so they had to stop. They could not get me to stop; My surgeon told me in all of his years of doing different oral surgeries he's never had or heard of something like this happen. And he strongly advised me to go get checked out by a doctor and make sure there's nothing wrong because what happened was nothing near normal. They also will not do the extraction until I get checked out by one, and if they do end up doing the procedure it will have to be in the hospital because now I'm high risk.

So I basically might of experienced my first seizure, and now I'm terrified there might be something wrong with me. I'm going to get checked out by a doctor at some point within the next week and see where I go from there. Has this ever happened to anyone? Or heard of something like this? I cannot sleep or stop thinking about this. Any sort of guidance, or information regarding to this would be helpful.
 
I can not diagnose your particular case but in general this might be an expression of your anxiety or a type of seizure. Either way it is prudent to be checked out by a neurologist next. A stressful situation may be a trigger for a seizure however it is more likely an anxiety induced reaction. I have seen patients who are phobic and can manage to hold themselves together completely "loose it" after being sedated. It seems that the person is able to control their very strong emotions as we have been socially conditioned to do but at times the sedatives take away our inhibitions and then we express either verbally or physically our emotions.
Do you know what drugs you were given?
 
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