In the year 2013, hasn’t most of the danger of surgery and anesthesia been eradicated?  Well, I don’t want to discourage you from having needed surgery because the vast majority of procedures go as planned and improve the quality of life immeasurably for that patient.  But just how wrong can things go?

I don’t need to recount the horror stories of surgeries gone bad from all kinds of mistakes, but you’ve heard them.  I believe that things have improved over the last few years but occasionally we still hear of the wrong limb being operated on or even removed.  We still hear of sponges being sewn up in patients, all things that could be prevented.

What can’t be prevented is bad reactions to anesthesia or pain medication in people who have never had surgery or had medical treatment at all.  Here is when using music can be particularly helpful by supplementing the relaxation effect and decreasing the need for as much anesthesia or pain medication.  Why wouldn’t a person use music?  Well, there are a few that I can think of:

• They don’t know about how powerful music can be in surgery
• They don’t realize that they can buy pre-programmed headphones for surgery
• And that’s about it!

If you have been told that you need any kind of surgery at all, including dental surgery, please plan to use music.  Either your own favorite music through an iPod, or the pre-programmed headphones will give you a more positive experience and outcome!  Feel better!