Dental anxiety is a common concern among patients, with at least 20% of individuals expressing fear about visiting the dentist. To address this issue and ensure a comfortable experience for all patients, modern dentistry offers sedation options.
Dental sedation refers to a variety of medications that a dentist can provide for a patient that induces a calm sensation. This way, the patient can feel more relaxed as they undergo necessary dental work. The treatment can fight dental fear and prevent discomfort during a dental procedure like gagging.
Dr. Heather Adams Dental Sedation Options
Sedation dentistry is perfectly safe for patients of any background, but a dentist will want to evaluate your overall health before offering this medication. The dentist can recommend several options for dental sedation, depending on your preferences. Explore the different types of dental sedation offered at your Rogers, AR, dentist’s office when you read on.
Laughing Gas
Nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, is a type of dental sedation that a dentist can give to a patient during a procedure. They administer the medicine using a mask over the patient’s nose or mouth that they can breathe in. Within minutes, the patient can feel a calming and euphoric sensation.
The medicine will fight stress and nervousness while ensuring the patient will remain awake and alert throughout the dental procedure. When the dentist removes the mask, and the patient breathes normally, the effects of this sedation will fade quickly.
Because laughing gas will not impact the patient’s consciousness, they can return to their usual activities without any disruption. The patient should not experience any side effects during or after using this type of sedation.
Oral Sedation
Oral sedation involves taking a prescribed pill about one hour before your scheduled dental appointment. The medicine will kick in as your dental work begins, making you feel relaxed. You will remain conscious under this medicine, though some people feel calm enough to fall asleep.
Because this medicine is administered orally, the dentist has less control over the length of its effects. For this reason, you might feel groggy after your dental work is completed. For your safety, you should arrange a lift to and from the dentist’s office because you should not operate heavy machinery.
The sedative should wear off within a few hours, and then you can return to your usual schedule. If you have questions about potential side effects from this type of medicine, ask your dentist.
Anesthetics
Sedation dental treatments can help you feel relaxed, but they do not address potential discomfort caused by dental work. For this reason, dentists use anesthetics along with sedation for an enhanced patient experience.
Dentists can give a patient a local anesthetic, a type of medicine that will numb a targeted area of the mouth. They will apply a numbing gel to the tissue first and then deliver an injection to the nerve to block pain signals. This ensures that upcoming dental interventions will not hurt at all.
Since many cases of dental anxiety stem from this expectation of pain, anesthetics can further reduce nervousness and stress related to dental work. Give your dentist a call to learn more advice about how to combat dental fear.