Do you feel anxious about the idea of a dental appointment? Do you avoid taking proper care of your dental health because you are afraid to visit the dentist? If so, sedation dentistry may be a good option for you. Because there are risks involved, it is important to know your options when it comes to dental sedation.
What is sedation dentistry?
Sedation dentistry is the use of sedatives during dental procedures to calm the patient. It can vary from drugs such as tranquillizers, depressants, anti-anxiety medications to nitrous oxide. Some patients also use hypnosis to ease their anxiety. General anesthesia that completely sedates a patient is sleep dentistry, not sedation dentistry.
Why sedation dentistry?
For people who avoid the dentist out of fear or memories of bad experiences in the past, sedation dentistry can provide the relaxation they need in order to maintain their oral health. While dentists regularly use local anesthesia for pain management during dental procedures, sedation dentistry generally goes a step further than that to help the patient relax and reduce anxiety over the procedure.
What is involved?
The decision to use sedation is best arrived at through a conversation between dentist and patient. Depending on the procedure, the patient's anxiety levels and other health factors (such as age or pre-existing conditions), the dentist will decide how what kind of sedation and how much to use.
During sedation dentistry, a patient can go through a dental procedure without being fully aware of what is happening; after the procedure, he or she may not even remember it.
Risk factors
Dentists do not automatically receive training in sedation techniques as part of their education. The Wall Street Journal warns about the "potential for oversedation" during this procedure, which often involves taking more than one pill in a 24-hour period. In addition to the health risks, sedation dentistry can be more expensive than traditional dental procedures because the additional medications may not be covered by health insurance. For this reason, some dentists choose to administer only regular anesthesia during their procedures.
Other Options
Drugs such as Novocaine and nitrous oxide (laughing gas) are commonly used in dental procedures. Novocaine would be injected into the area of the mouth to be involved in the procedure, in order to numb the area and reduce pain. Nitrous oxide is inhaled, helping the patient relax throughout the procedure. Dentists are well-trained in the use of these anesthetics and able to administer them without additional education or training.
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