IV Sedation

Intravenous (IV) General Anesthesia (asleep)

If you have a high degree of anxiety, or do not wish to remember the experience of the surgery, general anesthesia affords you the luxury of taking a short nap and waking up at the end of the procedure. An oral premedication, as explained in the previous section, is given prior to your arrival. Before the procedure, medication is given through a small IV and you will begin to fall asleep. The numbing injection (Novocaine) will be given, but you will likely not remember it. Therefore, after you wake up, you will not experience any discomfort since the area will be numb.You will not be aware of the surgery and will remember nothing about the experience. For most conventional hospital surgeries, intubation (breathing tube) and paralysis are routinely administered. We do not use these techniques with our anesthesia and you will be breathing on your own throughout the procedure. This is far safer than conventional hospital anesthesia, and much less expensive.

Since you will have been heavily sedated, you will need a ride to and from the surgery appointment. Although you will be able to communicate and function on your own, you will likely not remember going home, as these medicines have a powerful amnestic effect. Therefore, a bus or cab ride home will not be permitted. You must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

Additionally, you must have an empty stomach on the morning of surgery, except for a small amount of water taken with your premedication. Your stomach lining produces strong acids in response to even minimal amounts of food entering the stomach.When you are under anesthesia, your normal reflexes are depressed or absent. Therefore, if you vomit, you will not be able to control any stomach contents from entering your lungs. If these acids enter your lungs, the result could be severe, life-threatening damage.Even a sip of liquid or a bite of food is not allowed.

When administering IV general anesthesia, we will monitor all vital functions. There will be additional costs for the necessary equipment and medications. Therefore, a nominal fee will be assessed for the procedure, depending on the duration of the surgery. Our administrative team will present the fees for the anesthesia, along with your estimated insurance coverage. You can decide later whether to be asleep, but we will need a minimum of 48 hours notice prior to your surgery date to allow us additional time for setup and recovery.

Hospital anesthesia

There are rare cases in which the surgery will be performed by our doctors in the hospital setting with the assistance of medical anesthesiologists. We are currently affiliated with Providence Regional Medical Center of Everett, the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center. Due to time and cost involved, hospital surgeries are only performed once every few months. Applicable cases include:

• Major reconstruction cases requiring bone grafts from distant sites (hip, tibia, etc)
• Corrective jaw surgery that requires deep anesthesia.
• Children under the age of 6 who are unable to tolerate local anesthesia
• Patients with extremely high drug tolerance and/or behavioral issues <!–

  Any surgery is an experience that invokes anxiety to varying degrees.  Everyone is unique in their anxiety levels and past traumatic experiences can further exascerbate the apprehension.  The primary goal of our team is to make sure you have a smooth, safe, comfortable experience for your procedure.  After your examination by your doctor, he will determine the degree of difficulty of your procedure and make recommendations of the type of anesthesia.  These are only recommendations and the type of anesthesia for the surgery will ultimately be decided by you.