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Dental treatment under general anesthesia - is it really necessary?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Many surveys show that a visit to the dentist is a huge stress for most people. But this is easy to explain - good anesthesia was practically unavailable to ordinary citizens until recently, and all dentist manipulations brought suffering to a person. But even now, when various methods of anesthesia are available in most dental clinics, people continue to experience fear of dentists. Perhaps general anesthesia in dental treatment would help solve this problem.
General anesthesia, or rather general anesthesia, has been used in medicine for quite a long time, about 40 years. At first, such anesthesia was used only for long and complex operations (restoration of gum and jaw tissue after accidents, purulent lesions, etc.). Local anesthesia, as a rule, was used for simpler manipulations in the oral cavity. In principle, local anesthesia is still widely used in dentistry, with only one difference - local anesthesia has now reached a fairly high level and is used in almost all types of dental services. However, recently, clinics increasingly offer treatment under general anesthesia. What is the reason for this?
A person under general anesthesia has a reduced reaction of the peripheral and central nervous systems, and is in a state of drug-induced sleep. Various drugs are used to induce general anesthesia - intravenous, gaseous. An anesthesiologist-resuscitator must monitor the patient's condition until he or she comes out of the state of anesthesia. Deep anesthesia is a borderline condition, i.e. when a person is literally on the verge between life and death. Therefore, the doctor must be able to resuscitate the patient at the right moment, otherwise even a fatal outcome is possible. Doctors themselves do not recommend joking with deep anesthesia, and, if possible, refuse to use it. But many modern dental clinics offer to treat caries, fill canals, and remove plaque under general anesthesia. The arguments given are that a person can perform several procedures in one visit, without experiencing stress from the sight of instruments, the buzzing of devices, etc. Moreover, immediately after anesthesia, you can go about your business, drive a car, etc.
But the list of dental procedures that require general anesthesia is quite short: preparation for dental implantation, complex cases of damage to hard gum tissue, etc. In addition, it is impossible to solve all existing problems with the oral cavity at once. In some cases, treatment requires a certain amount of time, for example, it takes time for the medicine placed in the canal to take effect, for the bone substitute to harden, in general, for the body to undergo certain preparatory and restorative work before the final stage of treatment.
Also, many websites of dental clinics do not mention contraindications, special conditions for the use of general anesthesia. Almost all clinics advertise mask anesthesia (gaseous) as a modern and safe anesthesia that can be used even in infants. There is some truth here: modern gaseous anesthesia is much easier to tolerate than today's outdated means, and the elimination from the body occurs many times faster. However, there is one nuance here: before doing general anesthesia, you need to take several tests and visit a neurologist, therapist, ENT specialist to exclude possible contraindications to this type of anesthesia. For example, you need to be extremely careful with general anesthesia in case of heart rhythm disturbances, adenoids, liver diseases. Therefore, do not rush to sign papers according to which all responsibility will lie with you, until specialists confirm that general anesthesia is not contraindicated for you.
In addition, statistics indicate that most medical errors in dental treatment occur under general anesthesia (removal of another tooth, insertion of the wrong implant, etc.). General anesthesia in dental treatment of small children deserves special mention. In this case, pediatricians unanimously state that this requires quite compelling reasons, and a child's whims and crying are not a reason to expose the baby to serious risk.