Treatment under general anesthetic is ideal when extensive dental treatment needs to be completed. Treatment can all be done in one simple appointment while you’re put to sleep. It’s ideal for adults who need multiple teeth extracted or filled, for children who need multiple teeth filled, or for any person suffering of dental phobia.

Of course the first point of call for dental phobia would be a variety of techniques including a lighter form of sedation such as achieved by happy gas, but for some, the idea of being put to sleep provides further reassurance. Under this form of treatment a general anaesthetic is administered by a specialist medical anesthetist.

How is it administered?

General Anesthetic is usually started off with an injection in the hand or arm. It can be supplemented by a face mask but if a face mask is used you probably won’t remember it.

If post-op pain is expected, the normal practice is to inject a long acting local anesthetic during the GA, so that when you wake up everything is nice and numb for a good few hours afterwards, which should give you time to take some painkillers and allow them to kick in. It’s much better to prevent pain than it is to try to deal with it once it has started.

We treat all our general anesthetic patients at St.Andrews Hospital in Spring Hill and as such booking times for this procedure are longer. We recommend you contact us as early as possible if you’re looking to plan an appointment this way.

Patients will be given an information booklet, as well as an admission booklet to fill out so that we can organise the appointment.