IN OFFICE GENERAL ANESTHESIA
Instructions to Follow Prior to General Anesthesia in the Dental Office
Eating and drinking:
The following eating and drinking instructions are extremely important to follow exactly as written to insure the safety of your child under anesthesia. These are standard guidelines given to any patient having anesthesia and are meant to prevent the possibility of vomiting and aspirating vomit while sedated or groggy.
On the day of your appointment:
No solid foods or milk within 6 hours of the appointment.
No breast milk within 4 hours of the appointment.
No liquids (including water) within 2 hours of the appointment.
He or she may have water, Gatorade,apple juice, Jell-O, or a frozen fruit juice popsicle up to 2 hours before the time of the appointment.
Therefore, for example:
If your appointment is at 10:00 a.m. the last food or milk your child can have would be at 4:00 in the morning (not very practical) but he or she can have clear liquids until 8:00 a.m.
If your appointment is at 1:30 p.m., your child can have food and milk until 7:30 a.m. and clear liquids until 11:30 a.m.
Change in health status:
If your child has a change in health status before the appointment (i.e., a cold, runny nose, sore throat, cough, nausea, vomiting, or a fever) please call our office as soon as possible so that we can determine if it is safe to proceed with the anesthetic or if we need to reschedule.
Medications:
If your child takes any prescribed medication, please continue it on the day of the appointment. If it is an oral medication, let your child take it with a small sip of water. If it is an inhaler, have your child use it at their regular time. If your child is an insulin dependent diabetic, a pre procedure consultation with our anesthesiologist and/or your pediatrician will be arranged.
Clothing:
We recommend loose fitting, and easy to put on clothes for your child on the day of the dental procedure. The shirt layer closest to the skin should be short sleeved. If your child has a favorite blanket, please bring it. Many children under the age of 6 years urinate in their pants as they are waking up from the sedation. So, please bring a change of clothing.
Questions:
Our anesthesiologist will contact you one or two days before the scheduled procedure to answer any questions. If you have urgent concerns or questions that cannot wait, please contact us at 916-476-3972.