Among the many things patients need to consider before surgery, one thing that is of concern to certain people is anesthesia. It may be of bigger concern to people who have seen anesthesia-related accidents in the news. We will discuss the difference between deep sedation and general anesthesia today.
The process in which we prevent patients from feeling pain during surgery is called anesthesia. Depending on the characteristics, we can divide the anesthesia into categories such as local anesthesia, general anesthesia, and deep sedation. Generally speaking, for cosmetic surgery, either deep sedation or general anesthesia is used.
Additionally, the biggest difference between the two types of anesthesia is whether or not the patient can breathe autonomously. For deep sedation, patients can breathe on their own, whereas with general anesthesia, they will not be able to breathe independently. In the case of general anesthesia, a device called a ventilator will be used to continuously provide the patient with oxygen throughout the surgery.
Another way that the two types are different from each other is the method in which they are administered. For deep sedation, the anesthesia will be administered intravenously. On the other hand, general anesthesia is administered as a gas. When the quantity of anesthesia reaches a certain amount in the body, the patient will become anesthetized.
There have been stories on the news about anesthesia-related accidents. In severe cases, they can lead to death. For most of these instances, the type of anesthesia used is deep sedation. As mentioned earlier, deep sedation allows the patient to breathe independently. Phrased differently, that means that they need to be continuously monitored to make sure they breathe on their own consistently throughout the surgery. If the surgery is to be done under deep sedation without an anesthesiologist present, the doctor will have to monitor the patient's condition and perform the surgery simultaneously, which can lead to accidents.
For general anesthesia, an anesthesiologist must be present from the beginning when the anesthesia is being administered, and they will monitor the patient's vital signs which leaves little room for accidents.
However, as opposed to deep sedation, general anesthesia is administered through a tube that is inserted into the airway, which can cause irritation in the throat from inserting and removing the tube. This can cause the throat to be itchy or inflamed or cause granulomas or abrasive wounds to the airway.
Typically, for both orthognathic or facial bone contouring surgery, general anesthesia is used. Occasionally, patients ask if facial bone surgery can be done under deep sedation. Technically speaking, deep sedation is not a form of anesthesia because the patient is just in a state of sleeping, so they can feel pain. This means that, if it were to be done under deep sedation, a local anesthesia would also need to be used at the surgery site. But for facial bone surgery, local anesthesia alone does not cover the entire area that needs to be anesthetized.
If facial bone surgery was done under deep sedation, the patient would move every time they felt pain, and that would interfere with the surgery being performed properly. Additionally, the patient could swallow the blood and fluids, and other foreign substances that are produced during surgery, which does not make it the ideal method of choice.
Today we went over the different types of anesthesia. To summarize, the type of anesthesia used is not in and of itself more or less dangerous than the other. Rather, whether or not the patient is being monitored by an anesthesiologist to quickly and correctly handle any unexpected situations is what determines the safe outcome of surgery.
At EU Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, our surgeries are performed with a licensed anesthesiologist present with many precautions in place to ensure both the safety and satisfaction of the patients.
[WATCH] Which is safer, sedation or general anesthesia?
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