Question:
I am scheduled for dental surgery (wisdom tooth and two others).
Because the dentist cannot put a throat tube down without interfering with his
workspace, my sleep doctor is recommending local anesthetic only. I had a
terrible time with that years ago and am very scared of it.
I have an appointment next week to talk to my sleep doctor some more, but would
like to know if any OSA patients have had dental surgery and what the dentist
Answer:
I'm a nitrous oxide fan, it cured my long-standing fear of dentists
and got me through a few root-canals. You'll still need shots for the
pain, but you won't much care.
I just had a lot of dental work done ( 3 hours per time) and since normal
local does not work for me I got it done with IV sedation. I was hooked up to an
IV drip which made me "sleep", an oximeter? ( thing on your finger to measure
oxygen) and blood pressure cuff, both of which readings was in full view of the
dentist. Also, the dentist did have the chair at some angle at all times. As
soon as he is done you are out of the sedation, however even though awake, you
probably will miss part of your trip home; i.e. someone has to be with you and
drive you home, but you are very willing :-) LAst time it was snowing and I had
no clue, neither did I remember my DH told me to walk with him instead of me
being in a wheel chair, but apparently a person is very co-operative. All 3
times went to sleep at home for a couple of hours and had the best sleep ever. I
felt wonderful the next day. To bad that didn't last.
Best thing was no memories of pain etc. and you are "wake" right away and have a
loved one with you immediately so no chance of nobody watching you.
Mine was through the hospital dentist ( they do a lot of work for handicapped
people), so you might want to check into that. Oxygen was right there in the
room in case it was needed.
My 18 year old just had toe surgery using IV sedation and was very pleased with
this. That was only 1/2 hour and he remembered everything afterwards but had an
early night.
As a result of past problems with 'plain old' dentists before OSA diagnosis, and
one year personal experience with OSA and this newsgroup, I would be inclined to
let a maxillo-facial surgeon do the work. At the least, a dental surgeon, not just
a dentist.
Makes me wonder if the teeth being extracted are on both sides of your mouth, and
if they weren't, whether a tube would still be in the way. If this is, indeed, the
situation, you might want to consider two surgeries. It has been my experience,
and I thought it was common to not remove wisdom teeth (particularly if they are
impacted) on both side at the same time, because it makes it very difficult to
eat. I realize you are only having one wisdom tooth removed, however......... the
thought still holds.
