Re: CHAT: Elective surgery (was: Interbeing)

>
>(The same goes for dental surgery. A general anesthetic should only be
>used if a local is strongly contraindicated. I'm told that general
>anesthetis is the standard procedure in the US. See above on sanity).
Well, let's see.  Dr. Lewis has two options for my upcoming surgery:
Administer a general or clamp my head in a HALO and do something
similar for the jaw while he removes a cyst that was large enough to
cause the original dentist to lose all color in his face and refuse
to treat me as soon as he saw the X-ray.  But I've been assured that
the fact that the facial nerve canal appears to run right through the
middle of the cyst doesn't necessarily mean that half my face will be
paralyzed for the rest of my life afterwards--although I was apprised
of the fact that it was a possible risk--but less hazardous a risk
than having a mandible that two physicians both used the term
"eggshell" to describe when consulting about it.

If by "dental surgery" you are talking about merely pulling teeth,
filling cavities, removing impacted molars, and doing root canal,
then the overwhelmingly most common practice in the USA is local
anesthesia.  General anesthesia is reserved for those times when a
surgeon is expected to have to be cutting into the jawbone--and even
then only if it's extensive.  My wife's four impacted molars were cut
out of her jawbone purely under a local.


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