Doctors tend to drive people to have tremendous amounts of anxiety. Thankfully, sedation practices are available. Sedation dentistry is practiced by doctors to ensure their patient can have a procedure anxiety free. Sedation dentistry comes in many forms, which allows the patient to have a choice, depending on how severe their fright of the procedure is. The American Dental Association (ADA) ensures that a set of guidelines are followed when providing sedation and the training required.
Dental anxiety exists around a number of things. Whether you think your dentist is out to get you, you’re afraid of needles, or the drilling noise’s make you nervous – sedation dentistry is your key to eliminating those fears.
A common form of anesthesia used is nitrous oxide, or more frequently referred to as laughing gas. Laughing gas is a type of anesthesia that is activated by breathing. The doctor will place a mask over your nose with the nitrous oxide, and you will simply breathe it in to relax your anxiety. Nitrous oxide does not put you to sleep, and is a very safe procedure.
IV (Intravenous) sedation is another common form of anesthesia used by dentists. IV sedation is injected through needle into your vein, and commonly makes people sleepy. This type of sedation is typically used for wisdom teeth extraction, as it makes patients deeply calm, allowing them to not hear the drilling and other noises.
In other cases, there are oral sedatives to calm patients as well as numbing shots provided by the dentist. Oral sedation comes in the form of pill or liquid.
These anesthetics are a way to provide patients with a pleasant dental experience, without the anxiety associated. If you think you would benefit from sedation dentistry, contact your dental office to set up a consultation. Your dentist and their staff will be able to walk you through which sedation process will be the best for your needs, so you can enjoy your dental procedure without any worry.