Local Anesthesia
Anesthesia in general can be described as a loss of feeling or the inability to feel pain. Local anesthesia can be described as the loss of feeling in a small area of the body as a method of pain prevention. Our local anesthesia protocol is very comfortable to the patient with only very minimal if any discomfort.
Candidates for local anesthesia are usually people who undergo mildly painful operations that do not require the person to be unconscious. This type of anesthesia is usually used for minor procedures such as having a tooth pulled or minor surgery for a hernia repair.
One of the most commonly used local anesthetics is lidocaine. Lidocaine can be administered as an injection or placed topically on mucous membranes. One common topical anesthetic used for anesthetizing the tissues prior to uncomfortable procedures is known as eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream or gel, which contains lidocaine and prilocaine, another anesthetic. This cream or gel is placed on the tissues and then covered with an occlusive dressing for approximately one hour to obtain a good numbing effect. In addition, EMLA can be used to numb the tissues prior to giving injections (as it is done prior to dental injections) or pulling superficial splinters.
Local anesthesia works by injecting numbing medication into the gum or other soft tissue at the site of the procedure. The injection is usually near the surface, but may be deeper in some cases. The site of the procedure is first cleaned with an antibacterial cleanser and the medication is injected using a very small needle into the small, or local, area. The medication may cause a stinging or burning sensation at first, but this discomfort lasts for just a few seconds.
It takes a few minutes for the local anesthetic to produce its full effect, but when it has done so the person should be unable to feel pain in the treated area.
The numbing medication generally wears off within an hour of the procedure and as the procedures that use local numbing medication are usually minor operations a person may be able to go home soon after. If sedatives were used during the operation it is important that the patient be helped home as can impair coordination and reflexes for several hours. Driving home after local anesthesia with sedatives is definitely not recommended.
Local anesthesia requires no home care, although a person may feel some discomfort at the site of the operation as the numbing medication wears off.
Local anesthesia is extremely safe and it is unlikely to cause any complications, however allergic reactions are possible and may cause temporary breathing problems. In rare cases, if the medication is accidentally injected into the bloodstream, or too much is used, seizures or arrhythmias may occur. These can be life threatening and need emergency treatment.
To the left you can see a schematic of the nerves involved in dental local anesthesia. The maxillary (V2) and mandibular (V3) branches of the trigeminal nerve are the ones usually being anesthetized. Hover and click on the image for a schematic demonstration (remember to turn off Active-X restrictions)
There are times when just simple local anesthesia is not enough and you may want to be put to sleep for a lengthy dental procedure. We can certainly arrange for General Anesthesia services to be available to you.
General anesthesia is a method used to stop pain from being felt during a procedure or surgery. In this form of anesthesia, medication is given to make the person unconscious.
General
anesthesia uses medication to make a person unconscious.
Medications are commonly breathed into the lungs or
injected into the veins through an intravenous line
inserted into the vein of the hand or arm. An individual
may also be paralyzed with other medications to prevent
movement during the surgery.
A ventilator, or
artificial breathing machine, breathes for the person
during the procedure. This is because the chest muscles
are paralyzed. A ventilator requires a tube to be put
into the windpipe, known as endotracheal intubation. The
tube goes through the mouth and into the windpipe.
Oxygen and inhaled medication can then be delivered
to the lungs.
The person is watched
closely during the procedure. The oxygen levels in the
blood, pulse, blood pressure and other functions are
monitored. Fluids are usually given through an
intravenous line to prevent dehydration and low blood pressure.
The individual is totally
asleep and unable to feel pain during the surgery. When
the procedure is complete, the medication is turned off.
The person will have no memory of the surgery when he or
she wakes up.
After getting home, the person should rest for the remainder of the day. By the next day, the anesthesia is usually out of the system. The following day, the pain from the surgery usually causes more problems than the anesthesia. A person should not drive for at least 12 hours after the procedure. Some people may take a few days to feel that they are back to normal.