Tape recorded hypnosis in oral and maxillofacial surgery - Basics and first clinical experience

Background: Surgical treatment of diseases of the oral and maxillofacial region under local anaesthesia is quite commonly restricted by limited patient compliance. 'Medical Hypnosis' could be an alternative to treatment under pharmacological sedation. With this method, both autosuggestive and other suggestive procedures are used for anxiolysis, relaxation, sedation and analgesia of the patient. The purpose of this paper was to see whether there could be any potential for this treatment when operating on oral and maxillofacial patients. Methods: During a 1-year-trial period, 209 operations under combined local anaesthesia/medical hypnosis were carried out on 174 non-preselected patients between the ages of 13 and 87 years. The surgical range covered oral, plastic and reconstructive, oncological, septic and trauma operations. Results: Medical hypnosis turned out to be a reliable and standardizable method with high patient compliance. Remarkable improvements in treatment conditions for both patient and surgeons were achieved in 93% of cases. Conclusion: Controlled clinical studies are now necessary to obtain objective data on the effectiveness of hypnosis-induced intraoperative effects in oral and maxillofacial surgery.