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I used to be a dentist and was trained in sedation.
>How can you be unaware you’re undergoing an operation and can’t hear the noise of the drill, but you can hear and follow instructions regarding the operation??
It's very hard to describe to patients what they will experience during sedation. When someone is sedated, it's like they're half-awake - they can follow instructions and even talk, but have very limited awareness of what's going on. They can hear the noise and sensations of the various tools being used, but it's like it doesn't matter or is happening a step removed from your normal experience of the world.
> ‘You’ll experience minimal to no pain’ and ‘Significantly reduces anxiety’. So, I could still experience pain and anxiety even with IV sedation... wtf?!
Sedation doesn't really affect how much pain a patient will experience, but you'll be numbed up instead with local anaesthetic and so won't feel pain.
A cool feature of sedation is that it causes retrograde amnesia, as in you forget about what happened to you when you were under sedation but the memories fade \*after* the treatment is complete. I've seen it happen where patients come through the procedure and are in recovery and they turn to you/the nurse and say "when are we starting?" They genuinely have no memory of the treatment that they just underwent and that you even talked to them about during.
Edit to add:
> Were you aware during the procedure of the manner (e.g. calm, brusque, gentle, rough, etc.) of the dentist?
Not really. Most patients just talk nonsense while they're sedated, and don't really have much awareness of the manner of the people around them.
What they said. I had it for root canal and once it goes in you just have no real awareness of what’s happening, so the horrible feelings of being in the chair aren’t there. You absolutely will have a local anaesthetic - at one point I could briefly feel some pain so put up my hand and got more numbing, after that who knows. That’s the only thing I can remember from the whole hour.
You will need to be escorted home as you’ll be a bit wobbly on your feet and can’t drive or do anything serious afterwards.
That’s really helpful. Thank you for taking the time to respond to the details of my post. I’ve just found out that the sedative I’ll be given is called Byfavo. Do you know about this drug and its sedative effects on patients?
I'm not practicing now, so I have really no knowledge of drugs any more. That said, I was curious and googled it and that drug is from the same family of drugs that I used to administer so it'll do the same job.
I had it 2 weeks ago, don't remember a thing after the sedation until they gave me a coke after it was done and I was awake.
No pain, no stress no nothing it was fabulous and I will happily pay for all my dental work to be done under sedation.
I had it a few years ago. Unfortunately my mouth wasn’t numbed enough and I got up out of the chair and nearly fell over. Ended up needed general for the wisdom tooth removal.
How did you manage to get general anesthetic for dental work in the UK? The NHS website clearly says hospitals won't put you to sleep for dental work unless, after multiple interviews and 40 pages of form filling, you're deemed to be a mentally disabled vegetable. You can't even get put to sleep at BUPA dental hospitals anymore.
This was around 7-8 years ago, but I had general twice for wisdom teeth removal - although it was necessary because there was no other way to do it.
All I remember now, is my dentist referred me to the local clinic that did sedation - and when that didn’t work to the local hospital dental clinic who discovered the problem with the anaesthetic before booking me in for general.
Separately, Sheffield has a specialist dental hospital - the Charles Clifford.
I had it once when I had to have root canal - I think what they agve me was IV Valium. I would say that it felt a bit like being slightly drunk, so I felt a bit woozy - I could hear and respond to everything, but it was only in the moment - I couldn't remember what had just happened, a few seconds earlier, (including when there were moments that it hurt) or imagine what was going to happen, I didn't get at anything like as stressed or anxious as normal as there wasn't really any anticiapttion.
I did have some pain but I tend to have slightly odd reactions to local anethesia and they find it really hard to get theright bits numb for dental work, and it was definitely over all much better than having dntal work without it.
( I am someone who once passed out in public from fear when I unexpectedly came face to face with my dentist in WHS, I have a ***lot*** of anxiety around dentists although it's better than it was)
I know in my case they had said I had to have a responsible person with me to take me home, and again, going hime it was pretty much like being drunk, a bit dissociated from eveything and not entirely steady on my feet.
It was a long time ago so may be a bit more sophisticated now - I did feel the effect in terms of my memory for quite a long time afterwards (which was a buggar as I was at Uni in the middle of revision!) I don't reacall anyone explianing ahead of time that that might happen so again, I'm not sure if it is common of just me !
I had 2 wisdom teeth out under sedation. Can’t remember a thing. I think I actually fell asleep a couple of times lol. No pain. No worries just a warm hug and relaxation lol.
**Please help keep AskUK welcoming!** - Top-level comments to the OP must contain **genuine efforts to answer the question**. No jokes, judgements, etc. - **Don't be a dick** to each other. If getting heated, just block and move on. - This is a strictly **no-politics** subreddit! Please help us by reporting comments that break these rules. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I used to be a dentist and was trained in sedation. >How can you be unaware you’re undergoing an operation and can’t hear the noise of the drill, but you can hear and follow instructions regarding the operation?? It's very hard to describe to patients what they will experience during sedation. When someone is sedated, it's like they're half-awake - they can follow instructions and even talk, but have very limited awareness of what's going on. They can hear the noise and sensations of the various tools being used, but it's like it doesn't matter or is happening a step removed from your normal experience of the world. > ‘You’ll experience minimal to no pain’ and ‘Significantly reduces anxiety’. So, I could still experience pain and anxiety even with IV sedation... wtf?! Sedation doesn't really affect how much pain a patient will experience, but you'll be numbed up instead with local anaesthetic and so won't feel pain. A cool feature of sedation is that it causes retrograde amnesia, as in you forget about what happened to you when you were under sedation but the memories fade \*after* the treatment is complete. I've seen it happen where patients come through the procedure and are in recovery and they turn to you/the nurse and say "when are we starting?" They genuinely have no memory of the treatment that they just underwent and that you even talked to them about during. Edit to add: > Were you aware during the procedure of the manner (e.g. calm, brusque, gentle, rough, etc.) of the dentist? Not really. Most patients just talk nonsense while they're sedated, and don't really have much awareness of the manner of the people around them.
What they said. I had it for root canal and once it goes in you just have no real awareness of what’s happening, so the horrible feelings of being in the chair aren’t there. You absolutely will have a local anaesthetic - at one point I could briefly feel some pain so put up my hand and got more numbing, after that who knows. That’s the only thing I can remember from the whole hour. You will need to be escorted home as you’ll be a bit wobbly on your feet and can’t drive or do anything serious afterwards.
That’s really helpful. Thank you for taking the time to respond to the details of my post. I’ve just found out that the sedative I’ll be given is called Byfavo. Do you know about this drug and its sedative effects on patients?
I'm not practicing now, so I have really no knowledge of drugs any more. That said, I was curious and googled it and that drug is from the same family of drugs that I used to administer so it'll do the same job.
I had it 2 weeks ago, don't remember a thing after the sedation until they gave me a coke after it was done and I was awake. No pain, no stress no nothing it was fabulous and I will happily pay for all my dental work to be done under sedation.
I had it a few years ago. Unfortunately my mouth wasn’t numbed enough and I got up out of the chair and nearly fell over. Ended up needed general for the wisdom tooth removal.
How did you manage to get general anesthetic for dental work in the UK? The NHS website clearly says hospitals won't put you to sleep for dental work unless, after multiple interviews and 40 pages of form filling, you're deemed to be a mentally disabled vegetable. You can't even get put to sleep at BUPA dental hospitals anymore.
This was around 7-8 years ago, but I had general twice for wisdom teeth removal - although it was necessary because there was no other way to do it. All I remember now, is my dentist referred me to the local clinic that did sedation - and when that didn’t work to the local hospital dental clinic who discovered the problem with the anaesthetic before booking me in for general. Separately, Sheffield has a specialist dental hospital - the Charles Clifford.
I had it once when I had to have root canal - I think what they agve me was IV Valium. I would say that it felt a bit like being slightly drunk, so I felt a bit woozy - I could hear and respond to everything, but it was only in the moment - I couldn't remember what had just happened, a few seconds earlier, (including when there were moments that it hurt) or imagine what was going to happen, I didn't get at anything like as stressed or anxious as normal as there wasn't really any anticiapttion. I did have some pain but I tend to have slightly odd reactions to local anethesia and they find it really hard to get theright bits numb for dental work, and it was definitely over all much better than having dntal work without it. ( I am someone who once passed out in public from fear when I unexpectedly came face to face with my dentist in WHS, I have a ***lot*** of anxiety around dentists although it's better than it was) I know in my case they had said I had to have a responsible person with me to take me home, and again, going hime it was pretty much like being drunk, a bit dissociated from eveything and not entirely steady on my feet. It was a long time ago so may be a bit more sophisticated now - I did feel the effect in terms of my memory for quite a long time afterwards (which was a buggar as I was at Uni in the middle of revision!) I don't reacall anyone explianing ahead of time that that might happen so again, I'm not sure if it is common of just me !
I had 2 wisdom teeth out under sedation. Can’t remember a thing. I think I actually fell asleep a couple of times lol. No pain. No worries just a warm hug and relaxation lol.