Expert: Ronald Levy, M.D. - 8/30/2007

Question
Hi

I have a daughter of 9 years old with cerebral palsy, the dentist have scheduled to have anesthesia. Why do Anesthesiologist have to put a tube down my daughter nose?  It is making me nervous.

Please advice

Answer
Depending on what kind of procedure they are doing, they obviously require general anesthesia. Since your daughter will be asleep, it is necessary to protect her airway so that she can breathe and no foreign body gets in there, etc. If we intubate through the mouth (as we would for most surgeries), it will be harder for the dentist to work so we do it through the nose. It is no more dangerous this way and your daughter won't know anything about it because she will be asleep before they put the tube in and the tube will be removed before she wakes up. This is very routine so there is nothing to be nervous about.

Ronald Levy, MD
Associate Professor of Anesthesiology
UTMB-Galveston