Comprehensive Guide to Post-Anesthesia Care for Adults at Leident

You have undergone dental treatment under general anesthesia (narcose). Some mild side effects may still occur after the treatment. Through this comprehensive guide, we want to inform you about these possible side effects and what you can do to resolve them.

1. Care for the Hand and IV Site

Since all sleep medications were administered into one of your blood vessels, you first received an IV (infuus) in your hand or forearm to make this possible. Before you were allowed to go home after the treatment, this IV was removed, and the site where the IV was placed was pressed for a few minutes. After that, a plaster was applied.

• Bruising: Despite these precautions, it is still possible that a bruise develops at the site where the IV was placed. This is completely harmless and goes away on its own over the course of 1 or 2 weeks.
• Re-bleeding: It is also possible that the IV site starts bleeding again due to moving or bumping your hand. If this occurs, you do not need to panic; it can happen. What you must do is fold a tissue and press it firmly on the IV site for a minimum of 5 minutes. This will stop the bleeding. If necessary, you can repeat this step. If you want, you can apply another plaster to the IV site after pressing. This is not strictly necessary, however.

2. Pain in the Nose and Throat

To make the dental treatment under anesthesia possible, a breathing tube was inserted through your nose into your throat after you fell asleep. Because foreign material has passed through your nose and throat, this can cause irritation to the mucous membranes of the nose and throat. You may experience some blood from the nose or a heavy or tickling feeling in the back of the throat. You may also cough a bit due to the irritation. If this occurs, it is harmless; the irritation goes away on its own over the course of a few days.

3. Sleepiness and Absolute Rest

You have been treated under general anesthesia with very short-acting medications. Nevertheless, you may feel sleepy, drowsy, and tired after the treatment. This is completely normal and otherwise harmless. You should take it easy and rest on the day of the treatment and the day after. For the first 24 hours after the treatment, an adult must continuously be around you who can help you and care for you if necessary.

4. Diet: Eating and Drinking

You can carefully start drinking when you are home. Do not drink large amounts at once. Be cautious with eating as well. Only when drinking goes well can you carefully start eating. Try to consume only light, easily digestible food on the day of the treatment. If everything goes well, you can eat and drink according to your normal pattern again the next day.

5. Managing Nausea and Vomiting

With the highly modern medications we use for anesthesia, the chance of experiencing nausea and vomiting after anesthesia is very small. Nevertheless, there is a small chance that nausea and vomiting may occur after the treatment. If this occurs, be careful with consuming drinks or food until the feeling of nausea has passed. If you have to vomit 1 or 2 times due to the nausea, this is not harmful in itself, however annoying it may be for you. If the nausea persists after vomiting 1 or 2 times, you can take the anti-nausea medications you received on prescription. If you are unable to suppress the nausea and vomiting after taking the medications, you can contact the dental practice for further advice.

6. Tooth Pain and Painkillers

The dentist has performed a treatment on you that may naturally be accompanied by pain. The local anesthesia injected by the dentist during the treatment will slowly wear off in the hours following the treatment. As a result, it is possible that the pain will gradually increase over the course of the hours. The dentist has given you a prescription for painkillers. You must strictly adhere to these instructions. If these prescriptions are not sufficient to manage your pain, you can contact the dentist for any additional measures.