Sedation Dentistry for Anxious Patients

Anxiety can really get the best of us sometimes; it always pops up at the worst moment and just makes bad times even worst. This is exactly what happens when people with anxiety have to go to the dentist. Even if they’re not exactly dentophobics, the anxiety itself can generate much discomfort.

Luckily, there’s a new method for helping these sort of patients, and it’s called Sedation Dentistry. It’s constantly evolving to give patients a less triggering experience.

What is sedation dentistry?

Sedation dentistry is a dental procedure where you get sedated during the procedure, this may pair with other procedures to making the patient more comfortable. Among these efforts include:

• Building a good rapport — if a patient visits more than once, this may help to have some confidence in the person who is going to extract your teeth. Just saying.

• Laughing gas: there’re clinics dedicated for dentophobic and anxious patients. In these clinics, every room is equipped with nitrous oxide that can be applied even if you will only have a cleaning so you feel relaxed all the time.

• Special care: some dentists may do everything they can to make the patient more comfortable. Every movement may be gentle and proceeding with the procedure slowly and softly while giving you hot blankets or other comforting distractions may do the trick.

Does sedation dentistry use needles?

The basis of sedation dentistry is to avoid stress on the patient. For achieving this, the whole process excludes any step that would generate pain on the patient so, of course, needles are off the table. For sedating patients, these dentists use only laughing gas which is applied via mask or nosepiece, so there will be NO NEEDLES included in the procedure. Remember the idea is to avoid pain at all. Actually, with the gas, chances are you won’t even remember the procedure.

What if the gas is not enough?

In the event of extremely anxious patients, there’s a second way to continue procedure. This procedure DOES include needles, but it will just include a pinching sensation.

There are two ways you can have sleep sedation dentistry. Sleep dentistry uses a combination of soft sedatives and analgesic intravenously to induce a sleep-like state. The second option is the Complete sedation IV: in the event that there is a really complex procedure whereby you won’t remember the procedure in great detail.

Ready to brave your dentist appointment? Zentist matches Bay Area dental patients with the perfect dentist at an affordable cost to you.