General – General anesthesia is a state of complete loss of consciousness.  Under general anesthesia you are completely sleep with no sensation of pain and no retention of memory.  You may be breathing on your own or your breathing may be assisted by your anesthesiologist.

Twilight Sleep (monitored anesthesia care) – In this state of anesthesia the patient is sedated to different degrees based on the procedure and other factors.  While the patient is not completely sleep him or her is well relaxed and will usually not remember most of the procedure.  Both local anesthetics and intravenous medicines are used to block the pain sensation. 

Regional – This type of anesthesia provides loss of sensation to specific areas of the body.  This allows the procedure to be done without any sensation of pain.  Usually the anesthesiologist administers some sedation along with regional anesthesia to keep the patient comfortable during the procedure.  Regional anesthesia is administered by different techniques of delivering numbing medicine to specific nerves that provide sensation to the area of the procedure.  The following are some common types of regional anesthesia: