What are the Benefits of Sedation Dentistry?

Sedation Dentistry allows people with dental anxiety or fear of the dentist to regain their confidence in the importance of regular hygiene and periodontal treatments. A variety of dental services, such as cleanings and check-ups, restorative treatments, root canal therapy, dental implants, and many more vital dental services are able to be performed with Sedation Dentistry. Regular dental care, such as dental hygiene visits are essential when preventing the onset of more complex dental problems. Following a routine care and maintenance schedule helps our patients avoid the very thing they fear — with fewer visits to the dentist!

What are the Benefits of Oral Sedation Dentistry?

Oral Sedation Dentistry allows people with dental anxiety or fear of the dentist to regain their confidence in the importance of regular hygiene and periodontal treatments. Routine dental care, such as dental hygiene visits are essential when preventing the onset of more complex dental problems. Following a routine care and maintenance schedule helps our patients avoid the very thing they fear — with fewer visits to the dentist!

What are the advantages of Nitrous Oxide Sedation?

Many of our patients feel sufficiently calmed when we administer nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas. Nitrous oxide dental sedation is a great way for our patients to unwind during treatment, and when it is properly administered, the effects wear off quickly enough that the patient can drive him — or herself home. Some of the more common advantages include:

• Nitrous oxide dental sedation works very rapidly — it reaches the brain within 20 seconds, and relaxation and pain-killing properties develop after 2 or 3 minutes.
• The depth of sedation can be altered from moment to moment, allowing the person who administers the gas to increase or decrease the depth of sedation. Other sedation techniques don’t allow for this. For example, with IV sedation, it’s easy to deepen the level of sedation, but difficult to lessen it. Whereas with gas, the effects are almost instant.
• Other sedation techniques have a fixed duration of action (because the effects of pills or intravenous drugs last for a specific time span), whereas gas can be given for the exact time span it’s needed for. It can also be switched off when not needed and then switched on again (though to avoid a roller-coaster effect, you shouldn’t do this too abruptly).

Is Sleep Dentistry the Same as Sedation Dentistry?

The term “Sleep Dentistry” can be misleading. When we use oral sedatives, you are not actually asleep, although you may feel very sleepy, which is one of the effects of the sedatives. The term sleep dentistry is often connected to the use of general anesthesia.

Learn More about Oral Sedation Dentistry

We welcome you to contact us or Request an Appointment to learn more about our Oral Sedation Dentistry options today.

• For certain procedures — those involving gums rather than teeth (e. g. deep cleaning) — it may be possible to use nitrous instead of local anesthesia. N2O acts as a painkiller on soft tissues such as gums. However, its pain-relieving effects vary a lot from person to person and can’t be relied upon.
• No injection is required. In cases of very severe needle phobia, getting laughing gas first can help you feel relaxed enough to allow the needle required for IV sedation to be inserted in your arm or hand. The very deep state of sedation achievable through IV sedation will then allow you to accept local anesthetic.
• Inhalation sedation is very safe. It has very few side effects and the drugs used have no ill effects on the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain.
• Inhalation sedation has been found to be very effective in eliminating or at least minimizing severe gagging.