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Comment by nkrisc | Hacker News Reader

I was talking to a co-worker recently about dental work and he shared a story with me about having his wisdom teeth removed with nothing but some local anesthetic. It wasn't until after, what he described as, the worst experience of his life he learned that general anesthesia is common for the procedure.

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There are significant risks to general anesthesia. It's better to avoid unless really necessary.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postoperative_cognitive_dysfun...

When I had my wisdom teeth extracted the oral surgeon loaded me up with a lot of local anesthetic. So while it was an unpleasant experience the pain was bearable.

When he described the dentist climbing on top of him to get more leverage, then having to take a break to regain his strength, I think I'd have preferred to not be awake for that.

I had to take 3 of my wisdom tooth out in 2 sittings. For the last one the junior dentist couldn't get the tooth and the senior one came in gave it a couple of hefty twist/pull before raising the chair and completely leaning on me and finally managing to pull it out. It was more painful that time, swelling took a weak to get down. But it still wasn't terribly painful with a single injection of local anesthetic on the gum. All my teeth's were like 45 degree angle and pressing against the molar which caused the pain. I have to wonder what kind of pain or condition would require a general anesthetic.

I had mine taken out under general anesthesia. My two bottom teeth were at a 90-degree angle. They drilled them apart into pieces so they could remove them.

Also, what's with all these people saying they had a dentist remove their wisdom teeth? I didn't; I had to go to an oral surgeon.

Even with impacted wisdom teeth and local anesthetic, I would only call the procedure mildly unpleasant. It was over in 30 minutes for all 4 teeth and there was almost no pain (but lots of pressure on the jaw). Yes, they drilled them in half to take them out as well.

Local anesthetic is frigging amazing.

The recovery period, in comparison, was hell.

Swollen face, bleeding, subsisting on yogurt and milk for a week, unable to open mouth fully, opiates that made you drowsy/nauseous and didn't do much for the pain.

Going back for a checkup a week later, my surgeon tried to force my mouth open for inspection and I almost passed out from the pain.

It says in your link that it's equally likely in general and regional anesthesia. Moreover it says it's more likely in cardiac operations where blood flow into the brain is disturbed. I assume this is very rare then.

I'm extremely scared of general anesthesia ever since, as a kid, I woke up after a general anesthesia and couldn't breathe because I had a full blown asthma attack.

So, I've had my wisdom teeth removed under local anesthetic and I've had an endoscopy under local anesthetic. The wisdom teeth is not so bad, it's nowhere as bad as an endoscopy.

Sorry you had to go through that (the waking up unable to breath).

FWIW, my son has had to go under general anesthesia almost a dozen times now, and the protocols that the anesthesiologists use at our hospital use now require a respiratory therapist to be in the room when anesthesia is removed, and it is done in stages, so that it is made absolutely sure he is breathing on his own before the breathing tube is removed and he is fully awakened. I'm sure part of it was driven by the fact that what you went through is both awful, and should have been prevented.

I'm saying only to let you know that I really empathize with the anxiety it can cause, and that if you ever are in need of surgical care again, perhaps you should discuss it with your surgeon or care team before-hand..hopefully they have protocols in place where you won't have to go through that again.

On another note...holy crap on the endoscopy! I can't imagine how much local anesthesia that must have taken, or how odd that must have felt!

Thanks! Yes, if I ever really need general anesthesia, I would really discuss it with the care team and I would still be very anxious. I do think it was the clinic that didn't a good job then since they knew I had asthma and should have planned for it.

For endoscopy, yes it's the stuff of nightmares, being with a tube coming out of your mouth and completely helpless is a very weird feeling. They only spray the throat with a local anesthetic to numb it, it's not really painful but it's the helplessness that is disturbing...

I was put under general anaesthesia for wisdom teeth extraction. Was never given an option. The butcher who operated on me botched up and I've been having jaw problems ever since. No apology was ever issued either. Next surgery, I'd rather be awake but on something soothing.

I too have had mine removed under only local anesthesia, and fairly recently at that (in my early 30's). It's interesting to see some people say it was a horror show while others said "It wasn't so bad", since I've experienced both!

The reason why I finally had my wisdom teeth removed, was that I had one of them in my lower jaw, that was growing in almost sideways into the molar in front of it, causing a large abcess in the tooth. My dentist was surprised it had never caused me pain before this (I had spent a few years bouncing around, and hadn't gone to the dentist for years, so the fact it got so bad was likely entirely preventable...)

Anyways, because of the way it had grown pushing into the other tooth, the roots of the wisdom tooth were very curved (not quite fishhooks, but close!), so the procedure took a couple hours, while under only local anesthesia, where I could hear and fell him drilling, and chiseling, and digging in my jaw to remove the tooth in pieces. At one point in the middle of the procedure, he needed more images to see what was left, and left large metal pins in the holes from my roots as reference points of how far he had gone into my jaw so far. He gave me the warning "You really don't want to bite down while these x-rays are done", hah! Needless to say, when all was said and done, this was a pretty painful recovery, and still had bits of broken tooth root and bone pushing out of my gums for a few weeks after.

On the other hand, when I removed the wisdom tooth from the opposite side of my jaw, to keep things even, it had grown in straight, and was a very simple procedure where the tooth came out in one piece, and I had very little pain in recovering.

Everything had healed up beautifully now, and the dentist was able to save the abcessed molar, but man, I don't want to go through that again ever, and I can total understand why some people elect general anesthesia for such a procedure, since it really is a crap-shoot on how "simple" of a procedure it is. General may have its risks, but I'm sure people being scared to ever see their dentist again comes with risks as well!

Huh, strange. I had mine removed almost 10 years ago, and the idea of using general anaesthesia wasn't even mentioned. It was a bit uncomfortable, but I don't remember it being particularly painful, even days after.

That is weird, I had local anesthetic for my wisdom teeth removal. Granted they weren't that hard to remove, but I wouldn't want to be put under entirely for something so simple. Aside from being a bit pale, I could go home straight after and function close to 100%. Recovery from general anesthesia takes much longer from what I know, and there are more risks involved as well.

Only thing I found out is that paracetamol/acetaminophen doesn't do much for me, and that naproxen is a much more effective OTC painkiller.

I did that too, and my teeth were in bad shape (already falling apart) so it was a difficult procedure. Not painful, but very uncomfortable. The worst part, I think, was seeing my blood splattering on the dentist's faceshield. I don't remember much about the procedure (over 10 years ago), but I remember that.

Wisdom teeth removal is a very harsh procedure. You also don't want to be awake during hip or knee replacement where they use power tools and a lot of force.

But for other procedures I think being awake seems an interesting thing.

This is really a matter of taste. I was happy I declined general anesthesia when I had my wisdom teeth removed 3 years ago. I wouldn't say it was fun, but it was interesting, safer, and not painful. If I ever have a joint replacement and am offered the possibility of staying awake, I will take it.

Wisdom teeth removal can be very harsh. It depends greatly on how they've grown in. My wisdom teeth, for example, were a simple tooth extraction under local anesthetic.

When I got mine taken out I had two people hold my head while the dentist was trying to pull them out. I didn't mind too much but I wouldn't recommend this to sensitive people.

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