How come doctors don't knock you out for painfull medical tests and yet dentists!
Question:
How come doctors don't knock you out for painfull medical tests and yet dentists can do it to pull a tooth?
My brother had to have small chips of bone taken out of his back for testing and they did with a large needle through his back that could chip off pieces. It took a long time to do and they would do it then check something then do it again. He said it was torture. Six years later he is still traumatized by it and says if they have to do it again he will kill himself before going through it again. He is not a kid he is 50 years old.
Answers:
Its not because of allergies. They have so many different anesthetics they could find one to knock a person out.
Depending on the proceedure there are different reasons why they can't knock someone out. If they are taking blood tests they wont issue an anesthetic because it will be in the blood stream and can obscure the results of the blood sample.
For brain or spinal tests they keep the patient awake to communicate with them throughout the proceedure. Since the brain and spinal column have important nerves the doctors need to know if they have touched something so they can correct it immediately. For example if you were having brain surgery your vision might go blurry for a second, in which case you would say so and the doctor would realize that was your optic nerves and act accordingly.