An approach to some dilemmas and complications of office oral surgery

This article reviews an eclectic collection of problems. There is no particular reason why any one of them was chosen other than that they are more likely to occur in the course of practice than some other complications such as an oro-antral fistula or trauma to the lingual nerve or tissue emphysema. These latter and some other predicaments were discussed in the course of the talks given by the author at the 28th Australian Dental Congress in March 1995. The problems discussed in this paper are: 1. Dentoalveolar abscess anaesthesia. 2. Inability to obtain effective anaesthesia. The complications: 1. Post-extraction haemorrhage. 2. Syncope. 3. Postoperative infection.