Occasionally there is nausea and vomiting during anesthesia.  A patient
with general anesthesia has the normal coughing reflexes depressed.  As
a result, any vomitus can be aspirated to the lungs, which is very
serious.  Don't take a chance with this.

Steve

In the near future I will be having oral surgery, and I'm trying to get
some advance information on the proceedure for general anesthetic.  I
am still waiting for the initial appointment with the doctor, but I'm
searching the internet in the meanwhile.  I'm curious to know all about
the reason for the rule that you can't have anything to drink for 6 or
8 hours (different number of hours from different sources) prior to
oral surgery.  I can understand that if I eat, my stomach might get
upset from the stress, or something like that.  What would happen if I
was to have a glass of juice or a cup of coffee?  So far, all that I am
reading is "don't", but perhaps someone here could elaborate on the
reasons along with some personal experiences.
I'd appreciate a direct email reply, but I will still try to check back
with this newsgroup periodically.
Thanks,  teledale@aol.com