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difference between gas sedation/anaesthesia

M

Mbteeth

Junior member
Joined
Feb 28, 2011
Messages
4
Is it possible to be put to sleep using gas instead of an iv to have wisdom teeth out. I have a fear of needles.
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Hey
You can no t go into deep sleep with the laughing gas. What it does is providing a sense of euphoric feeling (and that helps with feeling anxiety) but your state of continuousness does not change. :)
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Is it possible to be put to sleep using gas instead of an iv to have wisdom teeth out. I have a fear of needles.

You can use nitrous to relax you before the i/v is inserted though.
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Thanks for the replies. The reason I ask is I have a friend that works at a children's dentist office and they put kids to sleep (anesthesia) using some type of gas. I just didn't know if they did that for adults.
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

I think with kids there's a very short-acting general anaesthetic (GA) that can be used for very short periods of time. Children's teeth are usually very easy to remove I think, and it may only take seconds, so this type of GA is suitable for the purpose.

Adult wisdom teeth that need to come out are usually more difficult to remove than kids' teeth (I think) and it would take longer. Therefore the same short-acting GA can't be used (I think :confused:). So the preferred option tends to be IV sedation rather than GA.

Maybe one of our resident dentists can shed some light on this :)
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

I think with kids there's a very short-acting general anaesthetic (GA) that can be used for very short periods of time. Children's teeth are usually very easy to remove I think, and it may only take seconds, so this type of GA is suitable for the purpose.

Adult wisdom teeth that need to come out are usually more difficult to remove than kids' teeth (I think) and it would take longer. Therefore the same short-acting GA can't be used (I think :confused:). So the preferred option tends to be IV sedation rather than GA.

Maybe one of our resident dentists can shed some light on this :)

----

I was just hoping to be under long enough form them to give me an IV to put me under...
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Thanks for the replies. The reason I ask is I have a friend that works at a children's dentist office and they put kids to sleep (anesthesia) using some type of gas. I just didn't know if they did that for adults.

I think this may just be nitrous followed by i/v/oral sedation. There used to be an 'in chair' short-acting GA through a mask used on kids and adults in UK for extractions only. So maybe that is still available 'in office' in USA. The gas used to smell horrible...it was most unpleasant, whereas i/v induced GA is positively blissful in comparison.

I know GA in a hospital can be induced initially by either gas through a mask or an i/v but the i/v is more common especially for adults. I think once you are out cold, you are then kept under by gasses, so it's no wonder people are confused:confused:.

There's also confusion because 'nitrous oxide' as conscious sedation (used now in USA a lot) and the old gas mask GA in UK, both used to be called 'laughing gas' colloquially but one is much stronger than the other.
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

I was hoping to stay out of this, since it's going to involve a lot of typing :)

1) You need to distinguish between sedation and anaesthesia. Sedation means you can sort of communicate and your protective reflexes are intact. Anaesthesia means you can't do either.
2) You can get to anaesthesia in 2 ways, with IV agents or with gasses. This is called "Induction". Once anaesthesia is established, it's usual practice to maintain it with gas.
3) It used to be very unpleasant to induce with gas, they smelled pretty bad and it was a fairly slow process especially for adults. There's a newer agent out now called Sevofluorane which doesn't smell too bad (a bit like wet fur coats!) and works very quickly.
4) All anaesthetists will want IV access during the GA for an adult, most will want it for children too.
5) Some anaesthetists are happy to induce anaesthesia with Sevo but they'll want to put an IV in right after the patient is asleep, which is fine as far as most patients are concerned.
6) For short GAs such as kids extractions then most anaesthetists are happy to manage the airway (see 1 about reflexes) for a couple of minutes. For anything more than 5 mins, then they need to use additional hardware to keep the patient breathing (this is usually considered a good thing :) )

So the normal chain of events for a very needle phobic patient would be: Induce GA with Sevo, establish IV access, insert breathing equipment, maintain GA with gasses, carry out treatment.

Trying to answer 3 different posts in one, sorry if it's a bit of an essay :)
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

10/10 for the essay Gordon. I will sticky it for future reference ;)
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Gordon, I want to know why you know what wet fur coats smell like.............sounds like a good story
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Gordon, I want to know why you know what wet fur coats smell like.............sounds like a good story

lol - well it's cold and wet in Scotland....
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

My Mum had 4 sisters, we used to have all the family over for Christmas dinner, the sisters dressed in their finery of course including fur coats (it was the 60s after all) and being in Scotland it was usually raining :)
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

Likely story............4 wet fur coats :o obviously left a long lasting impression.
 
Re: Wisdom teeth / gas sedation

I was hoping to stay out of this, since it's going to involve a lot of typing :)

1) You need to distinguish between sedation and anaesthesia. Sedation means you can sort of communicate and your protective reflexes are intact. Anaesthesia means you can't do either.
2) You can get to anaesthesia in 2 ways, with IV agents or with gasses. This is called "Induction". Once anaesthesia is established, it's usual practice to maintain it with gas.
3) It used to be very unpleasant to induce with gas, they smelled pretty bad and it was a fairly slow process especially for adults. There's a newer agent out now called Sevofluorane which doesn't smell too bad (a bit like wet fur coats!) and works very quickly.
4) All anaesthetists will want IV access during the GA for an adult, most will want it for children too.
5) Some anaesthetists are happy to induce anaesthesia with Sevo but they'll want to put an IV in right after the patient is asleep, which is fine as far as most patients are concerned.
6) For short GAs such as kids extractions then most anaesthetists are happy to manage the airway (see 1 about reflexes) for a couple of minutes. For anything more than 5 mins, then they need to use additional hardware to keep the patient breathing (this is usually considered a good thing :) )

So the normal chain of events for a very needle phobic patient would be: Induce GA with Sevo, establish IV access, insert breathing equipment, maintain GA with gasses, carry out treatment.

Trying to answer 3 different posts in one, sorry if it's a bit of an essay :)

Thanks for the information!
 
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