still feel pain after given general anesthetic...

[bradymo]

Hello there,
My wife recently had a root canal done. She requested sedation b/c of her absolute fear of the dentist. So the dentist complide and sedated her. But during the whole procedure she was screaming and crying. Talking with her afterwards she said that she felt everything that was going on. Is this normal? can you follow up general anesthetic with a shot of local to the tooth to be worked on? any help would be appreciated.

 

[tan]

Hi Sorry to hear about your wifes pain. I always go under general anaethestic to have work done on my teeth and they always freeze my mouth while i am under. I have even had work done on my teeth under just sedation ( where you are still awake not completely asleep like Gen Anaeth) and they have still given me freezing. I would suggest that she make a request to be given the freezing.

I feel for her and hope she is feeling better.

 

[Gordon]

Your wife didn't have general anaesthetic, she had IV sedation, which is a completely different thing. It sounds like she was not adequately sedated for the procedure and that the LA was also inadequate. Total disaster from start to finish in other words.

You don't need to give local to do treatment under GA, but most of us slip in some to make things more comfortable for the patient when they wake up again.

 

[GrahamDee]

Sounds like a case of neglegence.

If she was screaming and crying, what was the dentist doing at this time? Just carrying on regardless despite the obvious distress he causing, thats what. Did it not occur to him that if she is screaming and crying, something is wrong, that there is a vauge possibly the LA and sedation is inadequate?. I am not an expert, but I bet even someone like me could spot the tell-tale signs that something is not quite right.

This sounds like abuse and malpractice and maybe you should complain to the dental authorities.

 

[brit]

Sounds like a case of neglegence.

If she was screaming and crying, what was the dentist doing at this time? Just carrying on regardless despite the obvious distress he causing, thats what. Did it not occur to him that if she is screaming and crying, something is wrong, that there is a vauge possibly the LA and sedation is inadequate?. I am not an expert, but I bet even someone like me could spot the tell-tale signs that something is not quite right.

This sounds like abuse and malpractice and maybe you should complain to the dental authorities.

Totally agree. You have to trust the person sedating you to care about your comfort (sufficient LA and sufficient sedation) which of course most would anyway. Your sedated patient should not be in distress - that is the whole point of sedation. So sorry to hear of her experience...please report the dentist so he will think twice about doing this to someone else.
These cases are rare b.t.w. in terms of posts on here. He may have been relying on the amnesiac effect of some sedation drugs to wipe her memory is the unkindest interpretation possible..he's a disgrace to his profession for continuing either way.

To summarise: General Aneasthetic - renders you unconscious so you don't need local aneasthetic but many use it anyway as it provides relief from discomfort when you wake up afterwards - this is not what you wife had.
Intravenous sedation - local anaesthetic has to be given in the usual way as sedation alone is not enough - if there were a problem with discomfort despite local, extra drugs could be used to provide additional pain relief via the sedation cocktail.