Tooth extraction with the use of “general” anesthesia: advantages and disadvantages

Narcosis, or otherwise, general anesthesia, was rarely used in dentistry, as there was a persistent opinion that the discomfort, especially when treated with an injection (with local anesthesia), is quite possible to endure. However, local anesthesia, used in the treatment and extraction of teeth, does not always meet the requirements of high-quality pain relief for each individual person - for some people, the anesthetic may simply not have the desired effect.

It is then that the removal of teeth under general anesthesia comes to the rescue, because during this, often traumatic, procedure, pain without taking appropriate measures can be very strong ... In addition, for certain situations there are quite strict indications prohibiting the use of local anesthesia in favor of anesthesia.

Demand anesthesia and the treatment of young children,who are not physically able to sit in a chair for a long time and, moreover, can get traumatized due to excessive fear during the procedure.

It is interesting

Anesthesia is a condition in which consciousness is turned off and a kind of sleep arises with the relaxation of skeletal muscles and the shutdown of a number of reflexes. During anesthesia due to inhibition of the central nervous system, pain sensitivity disappears.

Synonyms of the word "anesthesia" are general anesthesia and general anesthesia. The phrase “general anesthesia” has taken root in the people by mistake, although professional doctors do not say that.

Currently, under general anesthesia, teeth can be extracted, treated, and implanted. There are even specialized dental clinics that provide such services. However, it must be understood that, given the complex specificity of general anesthesia, the price of any manipulation performed under general anesthesia will be higher than when using local anesthesia.

Next, we will talk in detail about the removal of teeth under general anesthesia, having considered the positive and negative points when choosing a similar anesthesia option. And also we will touch the prices for this procedure in modern dental clinics.

So, in order to carry out the removal of teeth under anesthesia, the dentist and the anesthesiologist must first do some work: by monitoring the health and examining the patient's test results, they determine whether there is a possibility of general anesthesia and also measure all possible health risks (and life! ) man ...

 

Indications for removal of teeth under anesthesia

Generally speaking, the use of anesthesia for the treatment and removal of teeth covers a negligible percentage of people seeking dental care. First of all, it is connected with strict indications for anesthesia: a competent doctor, even working in a clinic that has all the equipment necessary for anesthesia, will not always undertake a risky event only because of the frantic desire of a person to fall asleep for a while. feel nothing.

We list the main indications for the use of anesthesia during tooth extraction:

• the large volume and trauma of the upcoming surgery (for example, by X-ray images, it is sometimes possible to anticipate in advance the complex removal of wisdom teeth);
• the patient is allergic to drugs for local anesthesia ("injections in the gums");
• pronounced gag reflex, often greatly interfering with the operation to remove a tooth;
• patient panic over dental intervention;
• the presence of mental disorders in the patient (oligophrenia, complications of meningitis, etc.)
• interventions in young children.

As for children: there are quite a few cases when parents simply cannot cure their teeth in a baby, as he does not allow the doctor to do this, as a result of which the disease is neglected. As a result, anesthesia can be one of the alternative choices of pain relief in pediatric dentistry.

It is interesting

Perhaps the main criterion for removal of teeth under general anesthesia is the presence of a professional anesthesiologist and resuscitator. His role is difficult to overestimate, since in the hands of this doctor is in the literal sense of the patient's life. After all, it is the anesthesiologist who selects the necessary preparations for anesthesia, calculates their dosage, controls the condition of the person during the whole operation and even after it. In the event of force majeure,when the patient has respiratory and cardiac arrest, it is the anesthesiologist-resuscitator who literally pulls him out of the dead. Fortunately, such non-standard situations are very rare.

 

Negative side of general anesthesia

In order to routinely remove a tooth under general anesthesia, the patient will first need to undergo an examination so that the doctor can find out the associated and past diseases. That is, at least, it is necessary to spend some time for this - and this is the first drawback of the procedure.

In addition, during such a survey, you may suddenly be unpleasantly surprised that anesthesia, in fact, is contraindicated to you ...

The main contraindications for anesthesia are:

• anemia;
• acute diseases of parenchymal organs;
• decompensated forms of cardiovascular failure;
• myocardial infarction, as well as post-infarction condition in the period up to 6 months;
• acute alcohol and drug intoxication;
• frequent epilepsy episodes;
• long-term use of hormonal drugs;
• acute inflammatory diseases of the respiratory system;
• pneumonia;
• uncompensated form of diabetes;
• advanced form of thyrotoxicosis;
• full stomach;
• severe bronchial asthma;
• adrenal gland diseases (for example, pheochromocytoma, etc.).

If you ignore at least one of these contraindications, there are serious risks of complications during tooth extraction under general anesthesia. That is why before the procedure, each patient must undergo a series of medical examinations (ECG, laboratory tests).

Further. It must be borne in mind that the treatment and removal of teeth under anesthesia is generally more difficult than with other types of anesthesia - and the advertisement will not tell you about it. The most common side effects of anesthesia are:

• high blood pressure;
• increased heart rate;
• convulsions;
• bronchial spasms;
• spasm of the larynx;
• difficulty breathing;
• vomiting;
• temporary memory loss;

and some others.

At this negative points do not end.

Before anesthesia, there is a procedure for preoperative preparation (for example, do not eat or drink anything). Certain rules should be observed after anesthesia, which sometimes complicates a person’s life and creates some problems.

As noted above, the removal of teeth under anesthesia is associated with the mandatory need for a team of doctors in the clinic: dentists, anesthesiologists, resuscitators, as well as middle and junior medical staff. The presence in the clinic of special medical equipment, instruments and drugs for the introduction into the state of sleep is also important. All this directly affects the price of the service - naturally, in the direction of its increase.

Moving on. Many experts believe that anesthesia greatly complicates the work of a doctor. First, items of equipment (for example, a breathing tube) can interfere with the dentist's ability to freely manipulate the oral cavity.

Secondly, the patient, immersed in a deep sleep, cannot follow the instructions of the doctor, making his work more convenient (even if it is just elementary to open his mouth wider so that access to the problem tooth is better). Therefore, the doctor is forced to constantly change the position of his body to reduce the load on the muscles, which leads to rapid fatigue. But we all understand that, for example, with a long and difficult removal of a wisdom tooth, the fatigue of a doctor will not add quality to his work: the concentration of attention will decrease somewhere, somewhere he can choose faster and easier,but also a more traumatic version of the procedure. There are many possibilities ...

Practice shows that the presence of these difficulties in removing teeth under general anesthesia often not only does not reduce anxiety of a person before the next appointment, but vice versa, greatly increases fears. That is why you should not hope for anesthesia, as a means of reducing the fear of dental intervention. He will relieve pain, but hardly from fear.

 

Does the brain suffer from anesthesia and how quickly all its functions are restored

Despite the fact that you can remove a tooth under general anesthesia without pain, many people, even those who are very afraid of the upcoming torment, are in no hurry to resort to such a radical method of anesthesia. And the reason is the popular opinion that has developed in the people that with general anesthesia, the human brain suffers to some extent - memory deteriorates, regular headaches appear, sleep worsens. Is it really so and is it worth to believe such reviews of those people who have already felt it for themselves?

Thanks to clinical trials, research, observations, and taking into account the feedback of a huge number of patients, experts have evaluated how the treatment and extraction of teeth under general anesthesia affect the human brain.A number of reputable doctors agree that the connection between anesthesia and memory impairment after it is not and cannot be.

However, there is also a different opinion from this statement, which has a clear justification.

To remove teeth under anesthesia, apply different techniques and preparations. Different methods of administration of funds, and the duration of their actions. Short-term anesthesia for an uncomplicated short operation with a low degree of probability affects memory (and this is confirmed by the statistics of reviews), which cannot be said about the lengthy and complex manipulations performed during deep anesthesia.

In addition to obvious cerebral disorders in the period of cessation of breathing and cardiac activity (this is very, very rare), there may also be a temporary oxygen deprivation of the brain imperceptible to the anesthesiologist, which may well lead to disturbances in the functioning of brain cells and affect memory. In most cases, such violations are reversible and short-lived, however, sometimes quite negative consequences are recorded, including with respect to memory. The occurrence of such cases makes people fear not even the anesthesia, but its unpredictable consequences.

Feedback:

“Has transferred anesthesia for the third time in the last 2 years. Before that, I didn’t notice anything strange, except for the sometimes heavy recuperation after a break from anesthesia. After the last operation, I somehow managed to forget the name of my only daughter. You have no idea how many tears I cried from impotence, but I could not remember. Soon the memory returned, but a heavy mark remained in my heart. I did not think that anesthesia can bring so many problems. At the moment, I sometimes notice short-term memory lapses, so next week I plan to be examined by a neurologist. ”

Maria, 56 years old, Sevastopol

 

Benefits of general anesthesia over local

Despite the negative aspects, anesthesia during tooth extraction has certain advantages over local anesthesia:

• The emergence of any sensitivity is excluded, since the whole procedure takes place with a loss of consciousness, therefore it is 100% painless.
• The possibility of the normal conduct of even serious and traumatic manipulations in patients who are panicked by the dentist, since immersing a person in sleep removes stress and panic factors.
• Exclusion of injuries caused by the patient.For example, even with local anesthesia, a person can prevent a doctor from performing a high-quality tooth extraction, creating interference that sometimes leads to accidental tissue injuries (first of all, it concerns people with mental disabilities who are difficult to convince to sit still when they think that a doctor hardly Does not kill). Anesthesia completely eliminates the risks of such complications.
• The ability to conduct long and complex operations to remove one or more teeth, especially in cases where the teeth have a complex structure and the wrong position in the jaw. This is especially true when removing lower wisdom teeth, since the structure and location of these teeth in the jaw is completely unpredictable.
• Providing surgical care for children. As for the premature removal of milk or permanent teeth in a child, pain relief is required, general anesthesia may come to the rescue. Without this, the child will interfere with the work of the doctor and, moreover, can easily get psychological trauma for the rest of his life and a persistent fear of a white coat.Even local anesthesia often leads children to shock when a “terrible” needle enters the gum, so the option of anesthesia before tooth extraction is often the only way to help the baby qualitatively and painlessly.

Feedback:

“Yesterday I had my lower wisdom tooth removed under general anesthesia. The operation lasted about 40 minutes, as I was informed. The doctors said that in the picture my tooth was rooted under the next one, so I had to cut it for a long time and take it out in pieces. I would not have endured such a spectacle in my mind, and they put me to sleep well, so I didn’t hear or see anything. The only minus is a nasty othodnyak from anesthesia, and in the mouth was terrible dryness, as after a severe hangover, the head buzzed a couple of hours, but this is all behind. I am pleased that everything went well. "

Igor, Pskov

 

The cost of removing teeth under anesthesia

Anesthesia is obviously an expensive pleasure, except, perhaps, in cases of emergency, when doctors are obliged to urgently save a person’s life, for example, by removing the teeth that interfere with a jaw after a severe injury under general anesthesia, according to the testimony to it.In other situations, the client’s desire to fall asleep and wake up with a Hollywood smile is not enough.

Dentists who make a deal with conscience and for the sake of enrichment agree, contrary to contraindications, to remove teeth under anesthesia for a pleasant price in every sense, sooner or later they pay the price for their mistakes in the dock.

Due to the complexity of the equipment for anesthesia, the level of training for general anesthesia and the degree of possible risks, the cost of tooth extraction under general anesthesia is significantly higher than the price for ordinary tooth extraction under local anesthesia or, as people say, “injection”.

Feedback

“In addition to the extraction of a tooth, I gave 6000 more - these are two hours of general anesthesia or minimal salary, but it can happen to be packed in an hour: this fact does not affect the price. When I woke up after anesthesia, it was like visiting a resort. I always choose expensive anesthesia only because of the fear of pain. ”

Julia, Moscow

 

An interesting video: is it safe to use anesthesia in dentistry?

 

A good example of putting a child to sleep before dental treatment