Sedation For Your Sacramento, Roseville, Folsom, Natomas And Yuba–Sutter Area Oral Surgery
The discovery of the use of anesthesia in medicine and dentistry is attributed to two men who were both dentists. Horace Wells extracted his own teeth under nitrous oxide and William Thomas Green Morton publicly used ether as a surgical anesthetic. Ether is the precursor to all the inhaled anesthetics that we currently use in the hospital operating room and in outpatient settings throughout the world.
Surgery and anesthesia generally elicit a certain level of anxiety and rightfully so as numerous complications can occur from the delivery of both, ranging from small complications such as prolonged numbness or burning sensation up to death. The chances of severe complications are very low, however, they are real risks and you should discuss these with any person providing your anesthesia care.
The movies and television depict anesthesia a certain way, however, anesthesia in the real world is very different. Anesthesia is a general term which encompasses a range of pain relief by affecting the level of consciousness, unlike on TV where everyone gets a breathing tube inserted and counts back from 100.
In order to provide the best level of care, our surgeons have extensive training in General Anesthesia as a requirement of their surgical training. This is above and beyond what dentists are able to do and more training then even General Surgeons obtain. All of our surgeons and staff are trained in Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS).
Dr. Heir did an additional year of General Anesthesia training where he provided anesthetic care for children, the delivery room, neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, vascular surgery, GI surgery, GU surgery and much more. He is also certified in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS).
In addition to the extensive training, all of our facilities are equipped with state of the art monitoring equipment and our Natomas office is accredited by AAAHC office-based surgery center. All of our offices function at the same level as our office-based surgery center. AAAHC accreditation is identical to what hospitals go through every few years to maintain standards. Every patient that is placed under anesthesia is monitored with an EKG, blood pressure, pulse oximeter (measures oxygen in your blood), CO2 monitoring, and we listen to your heart and breathing which is extra monitoring that we provide above and beyond what is required.
When you come in for your consult, several options for anesthetic care will be discussed, including:
- Local Anesthesia–local anesthetic is solution that is injected in the area being operated on such as around gums and teeth. While the injection may cause some minor discomfort, most of the pain can be relieved with local anesthesia, however, pressure and noises cannot be eliminated with just local anesthesia. For this a deeper level of anesthesia is required.
- Nitrous Oxide Sedation (Laughing Gas)–This is the gas that most depict in movies where a dentist gives you something to breathe and the patient passes out, however, in reality this inhalation anesthetic causes a person to just relax. They are completely aware of what is going on, and some may also laugh. The best way to view this is as if you have taken a valium or a Xanax or a glass of wine. The effects wear off the moment you stop breathing it in, so if you breathe through your mouth, then you will not get any laughing gas as it is delivered over the nose.
- Intravenous Sedation and General Anesthesia (asleep for surgery)–This is the most common type of anesthesia used in our office. You may be given a pre-operative valium pill which should be taken one hour prior to surgery. Once in the operating suite, an IV catheter is placed into the hand or arm after the monitors are placed. Medication is given through the IV and you will drift off to ‘twilight’ sleep. This allows us to perform surgery with basically no memory of the uncomfortable parts of the procedure. The effects of anesthesia last about 24 hours, thus you are not allowed to drive after surgery.
Before Nitrous Oxide Sedation, Intravenous Sedation Or Intravenous General Anesthesia:
Please do not eat or drink anything, including water, for 8 hours before your appointment at Sacramento Surgical Arts, PC.
- If you are a smoker, please refrain from smoking for at least 12 hours before your surgery.
- Alternatively, just quit smoking as soon as possible before the day of surgery.
- You should be accompanied by a responsible adult (older than 18 years of age) when you come to our Sacramento and Yuba–Sutter area office. That person should remain in the office during your procedure and drive you home when it is finished.
- For 24 hours, please do not drive a vehicle or operate complex machinery.
- On the day of your surgery, we ask that you wear loose-fitting clothing (with rollable sleeves) and low-heeled shoes.
- You will be asked to remove your contact lenses, jewelry, or dentures for the surgery.
- Don’t wear lipstick, cosmetics or nail polish on the day of your surgery.
- Please remove all acrylic nails or gel nail polish.
- Notify us if you are ill on the day of your surgery. In these cases, we may need to reschedule for your safety.
- Notify us about your medications, so we can provide instructions about scheduling them around your surgery.
At Sacramento Surgical Arts, PC, we always aim to provide our patients with the best possible surgical procedure instructions. Because of this commitment, we provide various resources so you can understand what you can expect, as well as ways to prepare for the procedure. We educate you on the factors that go into your procedure.