Anesthesia Services

There are many forms of anesthesia that we offer at our office in Lubbock, TX, to make sure your dental procedures are as comfortable as possible. We offer local anesthesia, nitrous oxide sedation with local anesthesia, IV anesthesia, and general anesthesia. The type of anesthesia that Dr. Robert B. Ioppolo will administer to you depends on your overall health, your preferences, and which specific oral surgery is being performed.

Dr. Ioppolo received extensive training in anesthesia administration, allowing him to deliver the safest procedure possible.

Types of Anesthesia

• Local anesthesia completely numbs the surgical site to prevent any pain during your dental treatment. If you decide with one of our oral surgeons that local anesthesia is appropriate, you will remain awake and aware during the procedure. If you receive local anesthesia alone, you can drive yourself home after the treatment.
• Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is typically administered in combination with local anesthesia to make a patient more comfortable. With nitrous oxide and/or local anesthesia, you will stay conscious during the entire treatment and feel more relaxed. A breathing apparatus delivers the nitrous oxide before the oral surgeon performs the operation.
• IV sedation allows a patient to enter a sleep-like state during the oral surgery, and patients will wake up with no recollection of the treatment. This form of anesthesia requires a patient not to eat for at least eight hours before your operation. You will not be able to drive for 24 hours after your procedure, so plan to have someone drive you to and from your appointment.
• General Anesthesia is normally only given to patients who are experiencing a more serious hospital-based surgical procedure. This type of anesthesia allows your surgeon to conduct your operation while you are fully unconscious. You will regain consciousness once the treatment is completed. Just like IV sedation, general anesthesia is only administered to patients who have no food or drink for a minimum of eight hours before surgery.

Anesthesia for Oral Surgery in Lubbock, TX

When you come to Hill & Ioppolo Oral & Dental Implant Surgery of Lubbock, your surgeon will be happy to review your anesthesia options with you before your procedure. Our oral surgeon is highly qualified to administer anesthesia for patients of all ages. To learn more about our practice or the services we offer, give our office a call. One of our staff members will be happy to assist you.

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Exparel^® for Long-Lasting Pain Relief

Hill & Ioppolo Oral & Dental Implant Surgery of Lubbock is dedicated to keeping its patients healthy and comfortable. We are proud to offer Exparel to our surgical patients. Exparel is a proven, opioid-free, long-acting pain control medication.

The standard for post-surgical pain relief has been to prescribe opioid-based narcotics. This trend has resulted in long-term opioid addiction for 1 out of 15 surgical patients. The opioid crisis is of particular concern in our state of Texas, home to 4 of the top 25 cities in the U.S. for opioid abuse, and where rates of prescription drug abuse are soaring.

As opioid addiction sweeps across our country — more than 115 Americans die each day from opioid overdose — the medical community has been in search of powerful and effective non-narcotic pain relief medications. Exparel has proven to be an excellent solution. Exparel is an opioid-free medication that that is injected directly at the surgical site to provide long-lasting pain relief after surgery with just a single dose. This medication starts its work numbing pain during the surgery itself and continues throughout recovery, sometimes extending pain relief for several days. Many patients choosing Exparel for their oral surgery procedure won’t ever require an opioid medication post-surgery because their pain will be managed with Exparel alone.

Non-opioid medications like Exparel are gaining momentum in the medical community and are becoming a new standard for improving recovery, reducing cost, and reducing or even eliminating the need for narcotics. Please feel free to contact Hill & Ioppolo Oral & Dental Implant Surgery of Lubbock for more information about how Exparel provides safe and proven long-lasting post-surgical pain control. The doctor will be happy to discuss adding this medication to your surgical treatment plan.