Getting Nitrous Oxide?

Question

My husband, whom is freaked about getting a tooth pulled tomorrow at the Oral Surgeon, has opted to have nitrous oxide. Will he be awake, or just sedated enough to relax? Will he feel the surgeon removing the tooth?

Answer 1

Nitrous oxide is not a complete general anesthetic. You can't get enough into your body to provide general anesthesia without hyperbaric conditions. It will likely get him zonked enough so that they can get the local anesthetic injected. Once that is done, he won't feel any pain and will need only a little sedation to keep him from freaking out.

The oral surgeon should monitor his oxygen saturation with a device that clips onto his finger (pulse oximeter). Although it is rare, sometimes not enough oxygen can get to patients and that monitor makes sure that he is getting all the oxygen he needs.

Oral surgeons deal with nervous patients all the time and are pretty adept at making them comfortable. He should do just fine.

Answer 2

Whats great about nitrous is that you are in a semi conscience state which makes it great for dentistry. You're not completely awake and not asleep either.

He'll be "out of it" yet be able to complete instructions the dentist gives him. It's more than a relaxed state that a mild sedative would give you. It changes your perception of pain somehow. You feel it much less and you don't care. Also, the more relaxed you are the less you feel pain overall.

In my mother's day they used it for child birth. How I WISHED I could have used it for childbirth. It would have helped immensely, but they stopped the practice.

My only word of caution is to let your husband know that he should keep in communication with the nitrous giver if he doesn't feel it. He needs to breathe deep when he first gets it and it's harder to "stay" on it once his mouth opens for the tooth work.

He has to learn to breathe through his nose exclusively, but he may need them to turn it up once his mouth is opened. At least, that's the way it is for me.

Nitrous is awesome. I no longer dread dental work, I look forward to it. It de-stresses you also for anything else in your life has been totally stressing you out, like work, etc. Although it wears off quickly, you still walk away with "don't sweat the small stuff" enlightenment because while you're under you realize how stupid
the stuff is that you stress out on a daily basis.

Answer 3

That's a question for the receptionist first thing in the morning! Didn't they give you any info, not to eat or drink prior to the procedure? If he's seeing an oral surgeon, he probably is putting him to sleep. They usually don't mess around with getting a tooth out.

Play it safe and don't let your husband eat or drink past 12 tonight. That way if they told him not to, and he forgot, they won't have to reschedule, because he did. Which may be what he wants to do anyway just to get out of it.

They may give him an IV sedation with nitrous and he'll just be groggy and not care, but I would lean more towards him being put out, and just forgetting the instructions they gave him because he was so nervous. Either way, good luck!

Answer 4

He's awake but very relaxed and not nervous. All you feel is a lot of pressure but it doesn't hurt. The only part that hurts remotely is the shot and i am 13 that didnt even hurt. I was so freaked out, the anticipation is much much much much times a thousand worse than the actual thing.

Answer 5

Yeah and no NOx just makes you high and happy like being high of weed. Very similar buzz. don't worry as soon as he stops inhaling it he will stop being high within 20-30secs. You can feel it you just don't care. I always get a local to I had my teeth knocked out and the work on those is alot more painful. He should have the option of a local which is about $230 more but fun the last time was bad for me I had double the amount of local in me per body weight and NOx so I really didn't care. Just tell him to be calm. the good thing about NOx is the more pain your in the more your breathing increases the more you get the less you care.

Answer 6

N.O. will give him the euphoric sense of "who gives a sh!t." If he does feel any pain (which is unlikely due to the anesthetics they use), he will neither care nor remember. He will be awake and fairly cognizant (kind of like he's stoned on pot or something) for the entire use of the chemical; it will clear his system fairly quickly however, so he should be fine within 1/2 hour of being done.