Doctor Dinner, Anesthesiologist of New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center, tells the story of 4-year-old Billy, who underwent anesthesia for his tongue tie surgery.

Doctor Dinner: The child is a little anxious when the mask goes on their nose. Billy was crying actually but was accepting of the mask because within 15-20 seconds he essentially fell asleep. Billy was a very healthy four year old boy who was brought to the operating room to release a tongue tie. I don't think Billy or most other four year old boys would hold still to allow their ENT surgeon to do that procedure. In fact, I dare say 100 out of 100 kids would not just willingly allow the surgeon to do that. They need the intervention of another doctor, the anesthesiologist, to come in and provide an experience during which they can both be safe and tolerate this being done. If you can imagine being a four year old boy and being led into the operating room, with your mother outside, by a nurse that you don't know, it can be extraordinarily anxiety provoking. So the child is a little anxious when the mask goes on their nose. Mom: He just cried and cried and cried. Doctor Dinner: But within 15-20 seconds he essentially fell asleep. Mom, naturally being anxious about the whole process, nonetheless saw that he was okay, he was well, he was breathing fine. I believe with Billy the first person that he saw when he woke up was his mom. So I think it was very smooth, very safe and within the confines of contemporary medical technology, about as good as we get.