“Can you eat before local anesthesia?”

No
You never know if that can turn to general anesthesia

Preferably no.

You should be fasting 6 hours before the procedure, no matter if it's local. You can eat one hour after the procedure.

No!

It depends on the site of the surgery. it is safer to be NPO.

You can, depending on the Procedure. However as you never know about any adverse reactions to drugs or Surgery, which can occur and in turn cause nausea and vomiting, it is a good idea to restrict solid food about 5hours before the scheduled surgery. But your surgical staff will let you know their policy on NPO.

If you will be receiving any sedative medication before your local anesthesia, other than the mildest, you will be instructed to fast overnight, or for at least 8 hours before your procedure.

Jay R. Shayevitz, MD, MS

It is best to avoid food before any type of anesthesia because you may have unexpected change of events

There is no ONE answer to that question. If you are having a procedure in a physician’s office that physician will tell you what he/she prefers. If the procedure is going to be in an “operating room” with an anesthesia provide present, you should follow their “Do not eat” guidelines.

Turns out that not all procedures that are schedule for Local anesthesia can be accomplished under the Local anesthesia. The procedure might take longer than anticipated; the physician may have to change the procedure depending on what they see after they start or the patient may not tolerate the procedure under just Local anesthesia (whether from pain/discomfort, claustrophobia from the drapes etc. To go beyond Local the patient should be prepared as if having a general anesthetic and not having eaten.

I have been called to a procedure room to assist when a patient was not tolerating the procedure under local and they were not NPO (Nothing by mouth), we had to cancel several of those procedures until another day when the patient had not eaten.

Thomas Fuhrman, MD