Relax & Receive the Care You Need with Sedation Dentistry

A lot of folks have a lot of anxiety when it comes to dental treatment, and we have three different options. One is nitrous, which is our laughing gas. The second one is our oral sedation and our third is IV sedation. We have nitrous, it's laughing gas, commonly known and we're able to administer it in the office. It helps our patients to be more relaxed and at ease when they're receiving their dental treatment. It's an inhaled gas, so it's simply a nose piece. It rests on your nose during your dental treatment and you breathe it in and it causes you to feel very relaxed. You're still able to talk and communicate very well and easily with either your hygienist or myself. We're able to identify if there's anything that's causing discomfort and eliminate that, but it just helps to kind of take off any anxiety that you may have. We recommend that for patients who they have a very mild anxiety level to dental treatment. Our oral sedation option is very convenient for a lot of folks. They're able to take it the day of. They come in, they have somebody to drive them home, but they're able to come in and be very, very relaxed. And most patients actually fall asleep in the chair while we're working on them under oral sedation. We're able to complete their treatment and reverse a lot of the dental problems that they've had and we can do it all at one time. Folks who are more nervous but are needing to have a larger amount of work done and just simply want to be comfortable while that's happening will pursue the option of having oral sedation and that allows them to have a more relaxed experience for maybe in a longer appointment. Our third option is IV sedation. For IV sedation, I actually have a sedation specialist come in to be able to administer the sedation and monitor patients while they're under sedation. It's my belief that we should have the same level of care as a hospital setting. Anesthesiologists are in charge of sedating a patient in the hospital setting while the surgeon performs the surgery, and it's the same thing in our office. I'm the surgeon. I perform the dentistry, and I need to focus on that dentistry. And by having somebody in the room who is dedicated towards the sedation and making sure that our patients are comfortable and they're well taken care of regarding their sedation process is absolutely key to our success. It allows me to reverse a lot of the dental damage that may have happened in the past. I can reverse a lot of dental issues all at one time. You know, a lot of our sedation patients, they have more than just a single need. They're talking about multiple different procedures. And we're able to do extractions, and bone grafts, and implants, and crowns all in one appointment. We can take multiple different appointments and condense them down. So instead of having multiple, maybe even weeks of dental appointments for your needs, you can address all of those in a much shorter amount of time and making it more convenient for you in regards to time and also experience. Most everyone is a candidate for some level of sedation. Obviously, your health and well-being is the most important. And so that's a conversation that usually best had in person. We're able to identify any risk factors from any medications or medical history that you may have had. Most folks, however, are candidates and good candidates for laughing gas and for oral sedation. We're able to go over, in detail, when we have our consultations with our patients, whether or not sedation is something they're interested in, and if it is, what would best suit not only their needs, but their desires for the level of their comfort. It all depends on the patient, and it all comes back to the customization. We're able to truly see what level of sedation is best-suited for not only the dentistry that we're doing, but the patient who's receiving it and making sure that they're going to be most comfortable. If you're interested in learning more about what sedation options might be best suited for you, please give us a call.