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| 1. |
Why choose anesthesia for dental visits? |
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If you are afraid of having a dental procedure because of a frightful experience in the past, we can either sedate or provide general anesthesia. |
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| 2. |
How do I prepare for Anesthesia? |
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(Nothing Per Os): If you are 6 years old or greater, nothing to eat or drink after midnight.
Ages 3-5 years of age, - nothing to eat after midnight and stop clear liquids four hours prior to the procedure. What is clear liquids mean? Any liquid that can see through is clear liquids. |
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| Medication: If you are on medication please taking it with a couple sips of water. The only medication we do not want you to take is blood thinners, and water pills. Of course any questions please feel free to contact us via cell phone (please no e-mails for fear of not communicating the proper message). |
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| 3. |
Will I feel anything when I am under anesthesia? |
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No. |
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Sedation: You will not feel anything but you might dream. Make it a good one! |
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General Anesthesia: You will feel nothing. |
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| 4. |
What are the possible side effects of Anesthesia? |
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The most common side effects of anesthesia are nausea, vomiting, pain. Narcotics help reduce pain but causes nausea and vomiting. How do we counteract those side effects is by using multi- modal anesthesia. What does multi-modal anesthesia mean? We attempt to reduce the amount of narcotics in our anesthetic, by substituting other medication that can reduce pain but not cause nausea and vomiting. An example of this medication is local anesthesia. Local anesthesia is an excellent drug that reduces pain but causes no nausea
or vomiting. |
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| 5. |
Do I have options in the type of anesthesia available? Yes |
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Depending on the procedure we can provide: |
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General Anesthesia: Totally go to sleep. Either a Laryngeal mask airway (LMA), is employed above the vocal cords or we actually intubate the trachea in order to protect the airway from aspiration (vomiting that can go into the lungs). Many times we will use a mask induction to place the patient asleep, then start an intravenous, and then proceed with the case. Mask induction is routinely used for people who are afraid of needles such as young children. Mask induction alleviates the fear of the surgery and getting a needle from the child and makes it a much more positive experience. |
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Monitor Anesthesia Care: People who can tolerate needles and need something to lightly sedate the patient for a quick less stimulating procedure; this type of anesthesia is very effective |
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Total Intravenous Anesthesia: This type of anesthesia is employed typically for colonoscopies. It is heavier sedation then Monitor Anesthesia Care but lighter then general anesthesia. No apparatus is placed in the airway. |
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All types of anesthesia are monitored with high standard of care: |
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EKG |
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Noninvasive Blood Pressure |
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Pulse Oxymetry |
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Gas Analysis - Oxygen, Nitrous Oxide or Sevofluane |
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| 6. |
Who will administer the anesthesia? |
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A Board Certified Anesthesiologist and/or an anesthesia team approach of a Board Certified Anesthesiologist and CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist). Safety is a high priority. |
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| 7. |
What are the risks of anesthesia? |
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Nausea, Vomiting, Dental damage, infiltration of IV, high blood pressure, low blood pressure, nerve damage, thrombophlebitis from IV, awareness, MI (Myocardial Infarction or heart attack), hypoxemia (low oxygen saturation in the blood stream), hypercapnia (high carbon dioxide), vocal cord paralysis (partial or full), neurological damage, stroke, Malignant Hyperthermia, hypoxia (low oxygen saturation in tissues), shock, heart stops, and death. These are some of the potential problems of anesthesia. There are probably more but these are the most common. If the question is how common are these potential risks? These risks are not very common. |
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| 8. |
What sets MASC apart from other companies in the field? |
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MASC Listens...We do more than show up in the operating room. 2-3 weeks prior to surgery, we conduct a lengthy telephone interview with the patient to make sure we understand the concerns and risks associated with this individual and their upcoming procedure. MASC Cares...We are committed to building trust and providing compassion to ensure our patients that they can rely on us to lead them successfully through this very difficult experience. MASC Nows..Our anethesiologists are highly qualified and board-certified. |
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| 9. |
How do we combat these risks for our patients? |
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Continual Medical education in Anesthesia and Internal Medicine |
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State-of-the-art equipment, we offer the latest and most modern, we try to go beyond standard of care. We care about the safety of our patients: |
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Company started in 2006; we bought a Drager 2006 Fabius Trio with a XL Gamma Monitor and gas analysis from Siemens. |
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2007 we bought a portable 2007 SVO2 machine with a 2007 infinity monitor with gas analysis. |
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Placing ourselves in the patient position and feeling their fears and concerns: |
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By placing ourselves in the patient’s position, we were able to come up with a different anesthesia technique that virtually eliminates post-op nausea and vomiting. How? By using multimodal techniques which lower the usage of narcotics and increase the other medication that prevent or block pain but do not have the side effects of nausea and vomiting. For example using local anesthesia and toradol instead of narcotics. Patients wake up quicker and have very little or no nausea or vomiting. |
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| 10. |
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Is Mobile Anesthesia services different than hospital based anesthesia services?
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We are no different then hospital based anesthesia services. In fact I spent the first ten years of my career in the hospital in order to get the training and experience of the hospital. Experience is a must! We will not hire anyone that comes right out of their residency or nurse anesthetist training. These Anesthesiologist and Nurse anesthetist must pass their boards and spend at least 3 years in a hospital before we will hire them. |
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What is different about MASC is one question. How can we take the same training and standard of care and place it in an office and surgery center and do it safely and efficiently? We have met that challenge and are continually exploring how we can improve upon this challenge. |
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| 11. |
What is a Pediatric Anesthesiologist? |
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When I was in my training in the early 1990’s, an Anesthesiologist in his/her third year of training could specialize in Pediatric Anesthesia. These Anesthesia residents would spend 9 months performing Pediatric Anesthesia at the Children’s Hospital. Today Residents must complete their
3 year anesthesia training and perform a 4th year in a specific field called the fellowship year. |
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I did not achieve a fellowship but rather spend several months at Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania (CHOP) performing pediatric anesthesia followed by performing pediatric anesthesia in private practice for several years. I am also currently up to date with my Pediatric Advance Life Support (PALS). |
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| 12. |
Preoperative Fasting |
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(Nothing Per Os): If you are 6 years old or greater, nothing to eat or drink after midnight. Ages 3-5 years old, - nothing to eat after midnight and stop clear liquids four hours prior to the procedure.
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| 13. |
What is clear liquids mean? Any liquid that can see through is clear liquids. |
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| 14. |
Anesthesia while a child has a cold |
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It is safer to perform Anesthesia on a patient that has just acquired a cold (1 or 2 days). If the cold has persist longer than 1 or 2 days we like to wait 4 weeks to perform an elective anesthetic. |
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Why wait 4 weeks? Because in this time period there is an incredible amount of chest congestion and over production of mucus that could make it very difficult to perform an anesthetic. Remember safety first! |
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Regardless of what age a child or adult is, the same rules apply. |
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