Anesthesiologist Questions Anesthesia

Can drinking have any impact on my anesthesia dosage?

I drink alcohol regularly. I am going in for wisdom tooth removal in 2 days and will be given anesthesia. Will my drinking have an impact?

8 Answers

Yes, you are going to need an extra dose of painkillers.
No
Not likely to have impact for purely local infiltration
It certainly can. Notify your anesthesiologist of the type and amount of alcohol consumed.

Boris Yaguda, M.D.
YES, regular alcohol intake and smoking both change the responses to most anesthetic and analgesic drugs. I hope you are having an anesthesia provider (physician anesthesiologist, or CRNA preferably, or oral surgeon at least), not just a dentist, who will care for you during this procedure.
First of all, do not drink on the day of your procedure. As far as anesthesia, you may require a larger dosage due activation of your P-450 enzymes. That is, some tolerance necessitating more analgesia. 
Local anesthesia, i.e., numbing your jaw, will not be affected. I presume you are an adult.
Depends on how often and how much. Even if it is a lot, it should be easy to compensate. However, most wisdom teeth extractions use local anesthesia mainly, which alcohol consumption would have no impact on.