How anesthesia works in dentistry

Until recently, the presence or absence of a toothache - the availability of the very teeth- was the indicator of a dental treatment need. Currently, people’s needs and, correspondingly, expectations of dental treatment outcomes is much more varied: comfort, beauty, health, cost effectiveness, prestige, care, self-confidence, clear speech, public recognition, ability to eat your favourite food, and many others.

Family Dentistry Centre is a dental clinic whose performance level meets all the above expectations. It is a dental clinic that will help you maintain your oral hygiene in perfect condition, treat and restore damaged teeth, extract damaged teeth and replace them with dental implants and install crowns, correct bite problems, perform lip and tongue-tie release, and many other.

The Family Dentistry Centre’s distinctive feature is that all of these procedures, sometimes very unpleasant and painful, can be done without pain, "in your sleep", without fear and anxiety. To create a comfortable environment and ensure a pain-free dental treatment, we use a technique of total intravenous anesthesia (TIVA) with propofol, a modern short-acting hypnotic that has a dose-dependent effect, and results in a rapid sleep onset without agitation. The drug can be used for inducing anesthesia and maintaining general anesthesia. As a TIVA component, it can be used in all cases when there is a need for a predictable anesthetic that does not affect the basal systems of organs. Propofol is a classic hypnotic that is, however, able to increase pain tolerance. We use this drug as a basic hypnotic agent.

This is all very interesting but difficult to understand!

And everything that is not clear leads to fear of the unknown and lack of a sense of comfort (safety). We’ll try to give a step-by-step and easy-to-understand description of what happens before, during and after dental treatment under with general anesthesia or propofol sedation:

If you have read this far in the article, then it is very likely that you have already tried dental treatment under local anesthesia and no longer wish to experience those "very pleasant" feelings again, or the very thought about this makes you feel anxious and scared; or you fail to explain to your child that he or she needs to remain seated and patient while the dentist is "picking" his or her mouth with some metal things...

Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia in Minsk

In a nutshell, you have a question: "How about general anesthesia?"

The logical answer: "If you can undergo treatment without general anesthesia, you should get treatment under local anesthesia, if you cannot, choose the place of treatment under general anesthesia where you will be comfortable and safe."

• To feel comfortable and safe you need to know who and how will administer general anesthesia during dental treatment, what the dentist and anesthesiologist will be doing, who will assist them, which intensive care facilities are available in the clinic.
• So, before the procedure you speak to the anesthesiologist who assesses your (or your child’s) indications and contraindications to dental treatment under general anesthesia; you talk to the dentist who decides on a treatment plan (when it concerns an uncooperative child, the treatment plan is agreed on with the child’s representative after the anesthesia onset).
• To perform surgical procedures under general anesthesia Family Dentistry Centre has a mini operating room. The patient (if it is a child, then accompanied by a representative) via the airlock and the medical team through the preoperative area enter the operating room. With the patient sitting on a chair or in a dental chair, an intravenous catheter is inserted, and anesthetic is infused through the line. The patient falls asleep almost instantly. Then, if it is an uncooperative the child, the treatment plan is agreed on with hisor her representative, and the representative leaves the operating room. The main principle of propofol anesthetic is the following: the patient is asleep while the drug is being infused; after the drug administration is ceased, its effect ends in about 4 minutes. The anesthetic is administered with a special syringe dispenser, which, according to the patient’s pre-set parameters, slowly (to maintain constant concentration) and automatically dispenses the drug during the procedure.
• The anesthesiologist monitors the patient's condition visually and with a special patient monitor, which tracks the pulse rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, body temperature, if necessary, blood pressure, and ECG. To ensure the safety of the procedures, the operating room is equipped with a suction apparatus, defibrillator, anesthesia-respiratory apparatus, and piped oxygen is supplied...
• The dentist does the work according to the agreed treatment plan. After the dental procedures are over, the anesthesiologist ceases administering propofol. And in 4-10 minutes the patient starts to regain consciousness. After that, if the patient is a child, he or she is taken to the recovery room; the adult patient is helped to get to the recovery room where he or she is laid down on the couch. If it’s necessary, the patient monitor is used to control vital functions. The patient’s accompanying person can join him or her in the recovery room. The patient had better to get a 30-40 minute sleep watched by the staff in the presence of an accompanying person, because after sleep they have less pronounced dizziness, and their consciousness recovers faster (in about 40-60 minutes). The recovery room also has piped oxygen supply. The room is equipped with a suction apparatus, patient monitor, and all the necessary instruments and medical devices to provide help.

Thus, dental treatment under general anesthesia or sedation is carried out at selected dental clinics only as they should comply with numerous requirements, which is necessary to obtain a statutory licence. To obtain a licence, the clinic should meet a number of justified and strict requirements, such as the availability of modern anesthesia-respiratory apparatus and a close control system for real time objective monitoring of a patient's condition that tracks automatically the vital signs. A well-qualified anesthesiologist and all the required (according to the current laws) equipment and materials make dental treatment under general anesthesia affordable, comfortable and safe!!!