Having a tooth pulled out under general anaesthetic

[Tensai]

Maybe we should have a smiley for "sensible post", just to distinguish the odd one that comes up?

Not worth the effort for such a staggeringly rare event.

[Not So Wise]

It will be pretty much as Daveb said, though just to clarify, someone to just come and pick you will not be enough, dentists generally have a policy that someone you know (and able to make decisions for you) is in the surgery before they will even put you under. This is in case something goes wrong but they never clarify this before the appointment (regularly have to go with my mother, who will only let a dentist near her if under general...something about convent school nuns and pliers )

Though to be honest seems a bit strange for Dentist recommending general just for a tooth extraction, most dentists do not put people under general anymore due to the added risk of GA without good reason, local is normally recommended.

Had all 4 of my wisdoms pulled under local, 3 were easy (though weird, pull, tug, crunch, crack *shudder* my jaw hurt more than hole left by the tooth) , only was ripping the arm rests off the chair for one due to exposed nerves (dentist could not give me any more local, so gave me option of reschedule for GA or suck it up and take it like a man…I took the latter option )

[Platypus]

If you wake up with a bruised chest.... thank your lucky stars

[OwlHoot]

If you wake up with a bruised chest.... thank your lucky stars

Isn't that where the dentist plants their boot before they start tugging?

[ChimpMaster]

OK so I guess it's not uncommon then ... makes me feel better. I've only been under GA once for another op and I quite enjoyed the morphine after (terrible come down tho).

Still for a tooth extract it does seem a bit much eh.

[TCL]

Had both wisdom teeth out as a teenager. local anathestic, one each side. I can still remember the sensation, it was a horrible grinding you could feel right inside your skull. At one point the dentist was straddling me, a knee on each arm of the chair. If only I hadn't been 13 years old...and in a great deal of pain...and didn't have blood pouring out my mouth....

[Ardesco]

I had two impacted wisdom teeth taken out under a general (wasn't given the option of a local). Woke up looking like a chipmunk with huge blood clots on each side of my mouth and they wouldn't let me out till I ate a fricking sandwich!!!!!

After sitting there watching everybody who had come out each a sandwich, suck out the blood clots and piss blood everywhere, before going in I was having none of it....

[bored]

Had 2 wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic - I didn't even notice when it happened, overall sensation was similar to being completely drunk. Don't expect to be able to do anything productive for the rest of that day.

[VectraMan]

Had 2 wisdom teeth removed under general anaesthetic - I didn't even notice when it happened, overall sensation was similar to being completely drunk. Don't expect to be able to do anything productive for the rest of that day.

Surely if it was a general the overall sensation would be similar to being unconscious?

I had a tooth removed under general as a child. IIRC one of my adult teeth had started to grow in behind the baby tooth it was meant to replace.

I've had all four wisdom teeth done under local over the last few years.

I wimped out and had a sedative when having the camera down the throat procedure that I can't remember what it's called. I remember a friend came to pick me up, and I made him wait because I thought I hadn't talked to the doctor yet. The doctor came in and said he'd talked to me just half an hour before and I'd appeared awake and been nodding and asking questions, but I had no recollection of any of this. I got home about 6pm, lay down on the sofa in front of the TV ... and then woke up at about 11am the next day. Whatever they gave me obviously worked.

[bored]

Surely if it was a general the overall sensation would be similar to being unconscious?

I think you're right. The doctors called it sedation and not general anaesthesia; also I remember pretty much everything that happened during and after the operation.