Root canal risks for a child under general anesthesia?

Question

Hi doctor,

My son is 3 years old and has serious tooth decay. The doctor has suggested root canal treatment and that procedure will be done under general anesthesia. The whole procedure will take three hours of time as number of tooth is eight. My question is that is it safe to go through three hours of anesthesia for such a small kid? What is the risk factor?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

As a parent, I can understand your nervousness. First thing it is inhalational anesthesia and most commonly used in pediatric procedure, it means there is no use of any kind of drug for anesthesia. Only a gas mask placed on face and a balanced ratio of N2O (laughing gas) and oxygen release for a conscious sedation. For continues monitoring an anesthesiologist should be present all time during procedure. After procedure within a minute child will wake up from sedation. So, please do not worry about this. It is safe and used world wide for child procedure. If you do not want a long sitting then you could ask your dentist for two or more settings but it may be more expensive.