• Dental Phobia Support

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Favorite form of sedation?

What is your favorite form of sedation?

  • no sedation, just tender loving care

    Votes: 19 14.0%
  • natural remedies (e.g. Bach Rescue Remedy)

    Votes: 2 1.5%
  • alcohol (a stiff drink beforehand)

    Votes: 3 2.2%
  • oral sedation (anti-anxiety pills)

    Votes: 16 11.8%
  • nitrous oxide (laughing gas)

    Votes: 27 19.9%
  • IV sedation

    Votes: 46 33.8%
  • general anesthesia

    Votes: 23 16.9%

  • Total voters
    136
My number 1 favorite is nitrous oxide because it doesent involve needles but if its teeth pulling or root canals I'd rather be put out in I/V sedation.:cheers:
 
I prefer Nitrous Oxide too, but haven't had it since I was under 18. It was given free to minors who normally got a full dose which puts you out. :sleep:

When I had it I could vaguely see people around me, but feel absolutely nothing and not really know what it going on inside my mouth. I much preferred that.

I hated and still hate those painful injections and all that drilling especially the slow drill (which they no longer use much now). :mad:

The first time I had gas it was scary, though. :scared:

I was 6 years old and had a very painful tooth abcess. I wasn't really warned what would happen. When they put the mask on my face I screamed.:o

I never got taken back to that dentist again out of embarassment.:redface:

A few years later I went for another extraction, age about 10 I think. I was really dreading the next visit and it showed. :(

At the reception after I came out my mother was asked: "Does he want gas?"

After the commotion I had made last time there was surprise that I wanted it. I was fed up with those painful injections by that time and wanted to try it again. I was still nervous at the prospect but that time was not so scary. The experience was quite pleasant really. :)

The last time was when I was 17. I hadn't been to the dentist for about six years and had avoided going.

:hidesbehindsofa:

There was going to be a lot of work to do - no extractions luckily but nearly all my molars had to be filled and there was some complicated job on a front tooth. I was quite obviously nervous and twitchy. The dentist suggested I had gas. It made it easier for him as much as for me.

I actually enjoyed that experience the best. I was looking forward to having it again. I got a real buzz when they put the mask on.:cloud9:

The only real snag with gas was that I had to go without breakfast beforehand!

Dentists aren't allowed to use it any more in Britain and it's mainly used for wisdom teeth and other surgery in hospitals.

Fortunately I haven't had to have any extractions since I was young, though.
 
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Dentists aren't allowed to use it any more in Britain and it's mainly used for wisdom teeth and other surgery in hospitals.

Fortunately I haven't had to have any extractions since I was young, though.

That's not strictly true..the sort of gas you are talking about was a form of general anaesthesia. UK dentists are still allowed to use nitrous oxide as a form of conscious sedation and it is the conscious sedation that Mikey and most US posters are referrring to when they mention nitrous or gas...not old fashioned UK-style GA.

If you think of the sort of 'gas and air' women are given access to during labour that is more like the sort of nitrous which is still allowed.

By the way, the injections aren't necessarily painful any more..it depends on the dentist's technique....so no worries if you do need treatment...just find the right dentist.
 
IV was great when I had my wisdom teeth removed but I like the fact that you come off the nitrous right away and can drive.
 
They still use gas for GA over here because I had it for a surgery 2 years ago and I prefer it to them using other means like injections or through an I/V.:)
 
That's not strictly true..the sort of gas you are talking about was a form of general anaesthesia. UK dentists are still allowed to use nitrous oxide as a form of conscious sedation and it is the conscious sedation that Mikey and most US posters are referrring to when they mention nitrous or gas...not old fashioned UK-style GA.

If you think of the sort of 'gas and air' women are given access to during labour that is more like the sort of nitrous which is still allowed.

By the way, the injections aren't necessarily painful any more..it depends on the dentist's technique....so no worries if you do need treatment...just find the right dentist.


Thanks.

The past experiences were a long time ago in the 70s/[?]early 80s. Out of interest is it likely it was Nitrous Oxide they used on me at these dental surgeries (this wasn't in hospital) or some other gas? As I said I could still see vaguely but not really feel anything - I suppose that counts as GA. I think I got it the last time because I was in such a nervous state. That would have made their job very difficult.

Aside from the torture of the slow drill, the needles they used on me in the 70s were usually huge vicious things and really hurt. I suppose that's partly why I'm still a bit needle phobic. They don't hurt as much now though it's true.

The main problem I have with needles now is that they don't seem to work as well. The numbness seemed to wear off before I went back in. I have heard people can develop a resistance to some locals.

That said the recent problems I've had have been with a wisdom tooth which is playing up and keeps having to be refilled. I get a brief sharp pain when it's drilled.

Now I can live with that but if it needs to be extracted in the end then I would be much more worried. Can that be done on GA on the NHS since it is only one? Would I have to go to hospital to have that done?

Incidentally the dentist I have is very good. Probably among the best you can get on the NHS and certainly the best I've had. Going private would be very expensive.
 
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They still use gas for GA over here because I had it for a surgery 2 years ago and I prefer it to them using other means like injections or through an I/V.:)

My preference too as I said. Some people are absolutely petrified of that rubber mask. Well I managed to get over that fairly quickly (after some high drama the first time).

Like you I still hate needles. I still get really tense when they appear. As for I/V drips ugh! I had one of those on for a long time when I had meningitis (again in the bad old 70s).

Hopefully my wisdom tooth won't have to come out but if I get the choice then I would definitely ask for GA with gas rather than with the needle.
 
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Thanks.

The past experiences were a long time ago in the 70s/early 80s. Out of interest is it likely it was Nitrous Oxide they used on me at these dental surgeries (this wasn't in hospital) or some other gas? As I said I could still see vaguely but not really feel anything - I suppose that counts as GA.

I think it would have been laughing gas (nitrous oxide GA)....I had it several times in 1960s and 1970s but you should have been completely unaware...it is a general anaesthetic..you are unconscious. However I fought it once and also could see and feel a little bit...this meant I was not fully unconscious.

Extractions under GA were supposed to be painless because you were unconscious and no local was used...if you personally had extractions with nitrous oxide but were not unconscious, they would have had to have used local anaesthetic as well or you would have felt a great deal of pain. Nitrous as conscious sedation does numb the soft tissues a little bit and is therefore good for dental hygiene but wouldn't be effective without local for extractions or fillings, unless it were given at GA levels and I don't think it can be now as the machines are calibrated to avoid this.

The local anaesthetics are supposed to be much better nowadays (but I know what you mean from one instance in an EU country but I suffered dentist error I think)..you shouldn't need to be sent back to the waiting room..they take effect within a few minutes.....you may simply need a larger dose or a different type of
LA to be used..for wisdom tooth extraction you would be given the strongest type of LA.
If you are truly needle phobic and feel you can't overcome this even with a dentist you trust, then ask for a referral to the Community Dental Service in your area...I don't know whether the hospital would oblige with GA for one tooth....in the past they certainly did GA in hospital for multiple extractions and probably still do. It sounds though like your wisdom tooth is fully erupted not impacted so it should be relatively straightforward...GA was always for more complex situations.

Private dentistry is not necessarily extremely expensive but it depends on your circumstances...if you are on a low fixed income then it probably is out of your reach. You could see an oral surgeon at a BUPA hospital for one-off wisdom tooth extraction.....if you got no joy in the NHS. I/V sedation would probably work better though and be much cheaper...you could breathe nitrous while they put the i/v in....at worst it feels like a little scratch.

I never had any painful injections in the 1970s either but my dentists always used numbing gel (bonjela actually) and had good technique so again you were unlucky...also back then the needles weren't just used once only so they tended to get blunt maybe and would then hurt more in your case.
 
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I think it would have been laughing gas (nitrous oxide GA)....I had it several times in 1960s and 1970s but you should have been completely unaware...it is a general anaesthetic..you are unconscious. However I fought it once and also could see and feel a little bit...this meant I was not fully unconscious.

Extractions under GA were supposed to be painless because you were unconscious and no local was used...if you personally had extractions with nitrous oxide but were not unconscious, they would have had to have used local anaesthetic as well or you would have felt a great deal of pain. Nitrous as conscious sedation does numb the soft tissues a little bit and is therefore good for dental hygiene but wouldn't be effective without local for extractions or fillings, unless it were given at GA levels and I don't think it can be now as the machines are calibrated to avoid this.

Thinking back (this was a long time ago) I think I might have been completely the second time. The first and last time at least I could still see vaguely. It is hard to recall details under GA! I was indeed fighting it the first time like you did - I was terrified and made a real commotion - but really I could not feel anything (pain or otherwise). The last time don't know why I could still see a bit if that wasn't supposed to happen as I wasn't resisting it in any way - again couldn't feel anything and even less aware of what was going on than the first time. Whether or not I was injected as well on any occasion I don't know (or can't recall).

Is it ordinarily dangerous to have Nitrous Oxide at GA levels? Or were the problems caused by incompetents or people with serious problems like heart conditions? Just wondering why they stopped using it as a GA so often on the NHS (other than grounds of cost).


[/quote] It sounds though like your wisdom tooth is fully erupted not impacted so it should be relatively straightforward...GA was always for more complex situations. [/quote]

It has grown through but it is very close to the gum line one side - practically meeting it at one point. I would have thought it would be fiddly to get out. Anyway I hope it stays where it is and the issue won't arise.
 
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Is it ordinarily dangerous to have Nitrous Oxide at GA levels? Or were the problems caused by incompetents or people with serious problems like heart conditions? Just wondering why they stopped using it so often on the NHS (other than grounds of cost).

It wasn't cost grounds at all...it was much simpler for dentists especially with kids. There was always a very real risk of death associated with it...your parents would have had to sign a consent form acknowledging this risk each time. GA of any kind is much safer in a hospital environment. Apparently the more scared the patient is, the higher the risk too.

I don't think dentists however :devilish:they are, actually go into dentistry to kill their patients, in-surgery GA meant that one day they could kill someone conceivably (a bit stressful) and there were some who never offered it for this very reason including a practice I went to.....this meant they worked on making their local injections comfortable even in those days...they would refer people out who insisted they wanted it, as I did at age 12 but that referral out was actually one of my better experiences of it. By age 14 for further orthodontic extractions I chose just TLC and LA.

There are some other threads on this which include some of the stats but trust me as a mum you really don't want your 4 year old dying from a tooth extraction when it can be done painlessly with just local by the right dentist.
 
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And there's me carrying all this guilt all these years about the way I behaved the first time even though I was only 6. I had to be physically restrained with one of the staff on one side and another on the other holding me down in the chair throughout. Anybody would think that it was an execution the way it was done. The wierd thing is though I recall screaming the whole way through I could feel absolutely nothing - certainly no physical pain.

I really wasn't warned what would happen. I suppose everybody thought I was too young and stupid. There was no deception - everything happened too fast for anything involved like that - but I had this really painful abcess and everything was rush, rush, rush. I never realised that by causing me to panic in this way they were actually putting my life at serious risk. I note what you say about the heart rate - I shudder to think what mine was.

I note from the other thread you had too similarly bad experiences not once but twice. I wonder how many of these deaths of young kids have been precisely because of an incident like mine.

Strange then we should both want it when older - in your case asking for it assertively on the last occasion.

In my case I think it was (still is) partly a desire to overcome this phobia and negate this bad experience.
 
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Hi,

I think that Dentists had stopped using gas as a GA by the 1980's. Perhaps it was still available for children but I know that when I needed a couple of wisdom teeth extracted in 1982 (I think) I couldn't find a Dentist who would do it with gas or use any other form of GA or sedation.

I was in a great deal of pain because the gums around the wisdom teeth had become infected so after a course of anti-biotics I was persuaded to have the extractions done under a LA.

This went from being uncomfortable to very unpleasent when the Dentist had trouble removing the teeth, I can remember him remarking that I was well put together as he pulled at my bottom tooth.

As this went from being very unpleasent to painfull and I began to think he was going to break my jaw I wished that I could have been given something to put me to sleep while he removed the teeth.

When I compare this with my previous experience of having teeth out under gas I can certainly testify that this was far more stressful and unpleasent.
 
All my hospital GAs have been i/v based and extremely pleasant experiences in comparison but the first one was in the 1980s.

An English friend 'in you know where' (Not UK) was advised that there was still a gas option for hospital GA and that they preferred to use it for kids (they tend to use i/v in UK even for kids) but I'm guessing you would just now use it to get the patient under and then insert i/v...maybe...surely you can't keep someone under with just the nitrous oxide approach????

Going back to old-style surgery GA, I don't know if it did work like this but given that they were working in your mouth..it always seemed a bit hit and miss to me..no breathing tube or constant monitoring just knock you unconscious and whip them out quick before you came round again and spewed up or have I missed something here? Was it more sophisticated than this?

To Mark Anthony...gas option was probably a bit of a blessing where infected teeth were concerned..you were unconscious, you would feel no pain...with just local especially back then, infection could cause problems getting properly numb in some cases....but not always.....I did have one extraction with just local at the dentist who used to gas me all the time; and I remember crying after the injection but finding the extraction totally painless and it was a tooth which had made my eye close up so it needed urgent attention....I had taken antibiotics (from A&E two days before) so some of the infection would have cleared up hence local was ok even back then...why risk my life for one tooth??? They didn't :jump:.


Wasn't 'in surgery GA' finally outlawed after yet another child death case in Scotland somewhere....who outlawed it the Government or the NHS authorities? As far as I'm aware they were still using nitrous oxide..it wasn't i/v GA which was prevented. I personally had the old-style as late as mid 1970s and so did most of my friends...I doubt there was anyone in my class at school who escaped it at least once ...(especially with NHS braces).it was a real rite of passage :ROFLMAO:.
 
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when I needed a couple of wisdom teeth extracted in 1982 (I think) I couldn't find a Dentist who would do it with gas or use any other form of GA or sedation.

Luckily, IV sedation has become much more widely available since :).
 
Yes its very lucky, I'm even luckier because my normal dentist office that I get my cleanings from does everything from I/V sedation to nitrous ect. without having to go anywhere else and meet a new dentist/oral surgeon which is great since im probably going to have to get my wizzies out in the next year or two.:o


This is the most confusing thread yet interesting:)
 
Luckily, IV sedation has become much more widely available since :).

I didn't feel very lucky at the time. Even now there are few Dentists in my area that provide sedation as an option and it is quite expensive, almost prohibitivly so.
 
I suppose what I was trying to say was that the situation has improved a lot, and there is now a safe alternative to GA. Considering the training required to administer IV sedation, obviously only a minority of dentists will offer it. I don't know the figures, but I'm under the impression that IV sedation is more widely available in the UK compared to other countries (perhaps because of the high insurance premiums dentists have to pay to be able to offer it, as well as the training).
 
Is this really a fair question? As not everyone has nitrous oxide, general anesthetic, natural remedies, a good stiff drink and know when to stop, so you can wobble home, and because of kids keeling over, under general anesthetics, not many dentists like to put people under, because of the so called risks.

I have had a general quite a few times, when I was a kid, I had multiple adult teeth growing from the roof of my mouth, I do remember it was fantastic, but the last time I had a general for extraction, it was to take 5 wisdom teeth out, at the dental hospital, at the age of 18, I ended up in a mess, in agony, and unable to eat proper food, for as long as 2 months, and was left very sesative to needles in my mouth, in fact I now freak out.

I know, I take the easiest route, sedation every time.
 
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Hi,

I think that Dentists had stopped using gas as a GA by the 1980's. Perhaps it was still available for children but I know that when I needed a couple of wisdom teeth extracted in 1982 (I think) I couldn't find a Dentist who would do it with gas or use any other form of GA or sedation.

I was in a great deal of pain because the gums around the wisdom teeth had become infected so after a course of anti-biotics I was persuaded to have the extractions done under a LA.

This went from being uncomfortable to very unpleasent when the Dentist had trouble removing the teeth, I can remember him remarking that I was well put together as he pulled at my bottom tooth.

As this went from being very unpleasent to painfull and I began to think he was going to break my jaw I wished that I could have been given something to put me to sleep while he removed the teeth.

When I compare this with my previous experience of having teeth out under gas I can certainly testify that this was far more stressful and unpleasent.


I hope I don't have to go through this (I may do in the relatively near future I'm not sure) but there is no way I would have a wisdom tooth out on local even though it would be only the one. A lot of people seem happy with having them out on GA. Those who have one out on local often regret it. Reading the above reinforces that belief. I don't think I could cope with that experience. :o

I fully understand and accept why GA shouldn't be used in dentists any more. Sometimes it was done to children in a completely brutal way, as was to me to the first time, causing a panic attack and massively increasing the risks due to the effect on the heart (I made a concerted attempt to escape). I remain to be convinced it is ordinarily a risk but quite accept, given the numbers, that death can easily happen under the extreme circumstances like my first experience or among people with heart problems etc.

Also some dentists pulling various tricks and not just on kids. There was one horror story involving an adult (80s I think) where the dentist tricked a patient into having all his teeth out (though some half joking "consent" was given if I recall correctly).:devilish:

However, I don't see why if someone needs a single wisdom tooth extraction they can't have it done on the NHS in a proper dental hospital under gas (I mean GA by that - not just as a relaxant which won't do much for the pain) if that's what they want. Even if it is only one these extractions can have serious complications and why should I be made to suffer more and go through the hell of the experience like above - especially as I'll have all the misery after.:cry:

Nitrous Oxide at GA levels is the devil I know - and for anything complicated it would still be my preference if I was given the choice. The problems of the first experience were caused by people not by the gas. I don't recall being nauseous or anything. Nor did I have a problem with the smell. When I wasn't panicked like the first time it was fine. It seems to have different effects on other people of course. Never made me laugh for instance, does others. :ROFLMAO:

Had it once at sedation levels. Relaxed me a bit but really didn't make that much difference so didn't bother with it again - not that it was ever offered again.

Other people it may have bad side effects or it can be a very pleasant experience. Even though it was a long time ago and my memory of some details may be hazy, I know it's effects on me.:sleep:

Don't know about other gasses, or I/V GAs their dangers, their side effects, whether they make you feel sick or not. I would have to find that out.

I am not advocating its indiscriminate use (because of its past abuse) especially on children - only under carefully controlled conditions.
 
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