Question about Laughing Gas (Nitrous Oxide) - Dental Health Message Board

sarahiskander · 03-28-2005, 08:05 PM

I am a couple of weeks shy of 18 years old. I've had a total of 13 tooth extractions, several of which were permanent teeth. For these extractions, I never had to use 'Laughing gas', only local anasthetics. On April 19th, however, I am going for my wisdom teeth extraction (all four of them), and I will only have local anasthetics and laughing gas (not general anasthetics). I wanted to know - what kind of effects does laughing gas really have? After recovering from being on laughing gas, do you remember what happened during the 'trip'? While on laughing gas, do you still recognize what's going on, etc?

Also - I never found any of the tooth extractions (or any dental procedure for that matter) very painful at all. In fact, all I really remember is having weird holes in my mouth and blood clots, etc. How much worse is wisdom tooth extraction than a normal tooth extraction?

Thanks for your answers and stories.

kehorner · 03-28-2005, 08:50 PM

I've never had any teeth out besides my wisdom teeth, and I had IV sedation for that. But I am a wimp, so my dentist gave me gas when he did some fillings on me.

The way it feels with me is I get kind of tingly and feel like I'm going backward into a tunnel and sort of fuzzy around the edges. You are still completely aware of what's going on around you, you just don't really care about it. You can still feel pain (if you do feel pain, let them know and they can give you more novocaine). Also, you are in control of how far "under" you go, because the mask is only over your nose. If you need more, breathe deeply through your nose. If you feel like you have too much, take a few breaths through your mouth. After they are done, the turn off the gas and just give you some oxygen for a few minutes. It clears from your system really quickly, and you should be completely back to normal in about 10 minutes. You will still remember everything that happened. It just helps make you a little less aware of things.

Also, if you decide that you just don't like it at all, let the dentist know and go ahead with just the local.

sarahiskander · 03-28-2005, 10:16 PM

Thanks, Kehorner