Oral Sedation for Dental Success

Although dentists would like their patients to look forward to their visits, we all understand that dental fear is real and very prevalent. At New Health Dental, we have a few different approaches to bring our patients to their greatest degree of comfort during preventative or restorative care. We begin early by taking extra care with our young patients to create a calm and relaxing environment during early childhood dental visits. In this way, we hope our patients will grow to feel at ease with receiving the care needed to maintain optimal oral health.

For our adult patients who have harbored anxiety about dental visits, we offer oral sedation for any type of appointment that is needed. Dental anxiety may stem from a number of factors. Perhaps a patient had a bad dental experience either as a child or as an adult. Perhaps dental anxiety is simply a normal occurrence, but worse for some than others. This anxiety, however, should never stand in the way of a person receiving dental care that could help him or her avoid painful and costly oral disease.

By using oral sedation, we are able to help patients who may otherwise avoid dental visits to obtain evaluations, cleanings, and restorative or cosmetic work when needed. The sedative works on the central nervous system to a degree that the patient's anxiety level is greatly reduced, but is not strong enough to cause a patient to become unconscious, as with general anesthesia. Nevertheless, we monitor all vitals during treatment while a patient is sedated. Although the sedation is mild, and the patient may be awake during treatment, responses to external stimuli are significantly altered, and the sense of pain is suppressed. In the end, the patient is able to undergo treatment without fear or complication, or is able to undergo a long procedure in total comfort.

Oral sedation is widely used and extremely safe, consisting of a single pill taken about an hour before the patient visits our office. Because of the effects of oral sedatives, it is necessary for the patient who uses this service to be driven to and from his or her dental appointment. We also recommend that sedation dentistry patients take the rest of their day to rest and come out from under the effects of sedatives, which may wipe out memory of the treatment received, and possibly other activities performed during the day oral sedation was received.