Wisdom Tooth Extraction Leads To Cardiac Arrest, But 17-Year-Old Student From Minnesota Is In Coma

Fear of the dentist is a reality that many people suffer from due perhaps to a traumatic experience involving tooth extraction or some other dental procedures. WebMD estimates that between 9 and 20 percent of Americans avoid going to the dentist due to anxiety or fear associated with pain.

Seventeen-year-old Sydney Galleger, a junior student at Eden Praire High School in Minnesota, probably was not one of them since she even went to her dentist to have her wisdom tooth extracted. Galleger suffered from a cardiac arrest toward the end of the proceure. However, she did not die as reported in some dailies, clarifies Diane Galleger, the teen’s mum, in a post on the Caring Bridge health support Web site on Friday.

But Sydney is not well, admits the mother, although she is recovering. The blood pressure of her daughter, a diver and Alpine skier, shot up when the dental procedure was almost done, Diane recalls. The staff of the dentists and paramedics performed CPR on the patient.

When Sydney’s heart started to beat again, the medics rushed her to a hospital and she was eventually transferred to the Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital. Doctors told the Gallagers that Sydney possibly has an undiagnosed heart ailment.

Sydney, who is breathing through a ventilator in her mouth, has nine of 10 criteria to be classified as brain dead. But Diane said the family has not lost hope that the 17-year-old would survive the ordeal. However, if she would not, some people could benefit since Sydney has signed up as an organ donor. All her daughter’s organs are healthy, Diane says.

To ease dental anxiety or fear, dentists are tapping technology such as pain-free injections, spa-like experience and total relaxation, according to WebMD. Among the dentist’s methods of further relaxing tense patients are to offer IV sedation use hypnosis dentistry.

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