A: In young children , the safest way to perform most surgeries is under general anesthesia . The medications used for sedation have the same side effects as general anesthetics and vary depending on a child’s age, weight, developmental level, health history, physical exam, and the type of test being performed.
Oral sedation consists of anti-anxiety medication and, for many patients, is perfectly safe . IV or sleep sedation involves being semi-conscious and therefore comes with the most possible risk. But when administered carefully by a qualified dentist can be a safe option for many patients.
Anesthesia today is very safe . In very rare cases, anesthesia can cause complications in children (such as strange heart rhythms, breathing problems, allergic reactions to medications, and even death).
IV sedation is comparatively safer than general anesthesia .
Anesthesia risks in children Niezgoda says — even in very young children. The most common side effects are relatively mild, such as nausea and grogginess. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns that “repeated or lengthy use” of general anesthetic or sedation drugs in children under 3 may affect brain development.
Often called “laughing gas,” nitrous oxide is a very safe, mild sedative that will help your child remain relaxed during dental procedures . Your child’s dentist will give the sedation with the use of a “space mask,” which carries air (oxygen) mixed with the medication.
Essentially, oral sedation will suppress the gag reflex, suppress pain responses, reduce anxiety, and more. However, these dental sedation methods usually last anywhere from two to eight hours after the procedure.
Intravenous Sedation is administered directly into the blood stream by an anesthesiologist. Depending on the dosage and type, you’ll experience a calming effect, drowsiness, minor amnesia, and tingling sensations. Within 2 or 3 minutes you experience a full-body euphoria and pain breezes away while peace settles in.
Oral sedation. Typically, the pill is Halcion , which is a member of the same drug family as Valium , and it’s usually taken about an hour before the procedure. The pill will make you drowsy, although you’ll still be awake.
If general anesthesia or sedation were used, don’t expect your child to be fully awake right away — it may take a while and he or she may doze off for a bit. It usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour for kids to recover completely from general anesthesia .
Do the following to help prepare your preschooler for surgery : Keep your emotions under control. Choose your words carefully when explaining surgery to your child. Help your child understand the reason for surgery . Take a tour of the surgery department with your child if the hospital has this option.
Consult your surgeon or pediatrician if your child has symptoms of a cold in the days just before surgery because it could affect your child’s breathing while under anesthesia . Sometimes in very mild cases of colds , it may still be safe to undergo anesthesia .
Conclusions: The administration of intravenous sedation by the operating surgeon for outpatient oral surgery procedures is safe and results in a low incidence of adverse events. In this series, a number of previously undiagnosed medical problems were discovered.
“It’s a reversible coma, but it’s nevertheless a coma,” says Emery Brown, a professor of anesthesiology at Harvard Medical School and coauthor of the paper. General anesthesia before major surgery dips brain activity (as measured by electroencephalogram, or EEG) down to levels akin to brain-stem death.
Sedation , together with analgesia, amnesia and muscle paralysis, is the end result of general anesthesia , which is an induced, reversible and controlled loss of consciousness. Sedation , on its own, is the depression of awareness, whereby a patient response to external stimuli becomes limited.