Sedation Dentistry Is Great for People Who Have a Dental Phobia

If you are someone who gets extremely anxious at the thought of going to the dentist, you are one of millions of people who have some sort of dental phobia. This may make you feel as if you cannot get all of the treatments and procedures you need because of your apprehensions. This is no reason why you can't enjoy some of the same cosmetic dentistry procedures as everyone else. There is a special component referred to as sedation dentistry that can take all of your fears and worries away so that you have a stress free experience at each visit. Sedation dentistry involves the use of sedative drugs that help to keep patients calm and relaxed while they are getting dental work done. These sedatives include tranquilizers, nitrous oxide and depressants. The drugs can be administered by way of gas, IV sedation, oral sedation, pills and injections. Depending on the type of procedure that is being performed and the patient's medical history, the dentist an anesthesiologist will determine the best method of sedation for the patient. In the past when an invasive dental procedure was about to be performed on a patient, the dentist would often provide a local anesthetic to the area by way of injection. Many patients young and old tend to be very apprehensive about the use of needles no matter where the injections are being administered. In order to make the procedures much more comfortable for the patients, many dentists now use sedation dentistry. One of the latest methods of administering the sedation is orally; this approach is much more popular to patients who have a dental phobia. If you were to ask a patient about what they remembered about their procedure, most would tell you that they didn't remember anything or they thought that they were asleep. This is because the anesthesia that is used to sedate the patient puts them into a state of altered consciousness that leaves them with no memory of the experience but keeps them consciousness enough to be able to cooperate and remain safe during the procedure. Anyone who decides to have sedation dentistry for a procedure will need to make sure that they have someone who is able to take them home after the procedure. Most dentists will not perform any treatments unless the responsible driver arrives and stay during the procedure. This is to ensure your safety, since most sedation drugs often leave you slightly impaired to the point of not being able to drive or respond quickly enough to an action. One of the most obvious benefits of sedation dentistry is that patients who fear the dentist more likely to keep up with all of their required dental appointments. Also patients who are having some major work done that involves quite a bit of time per appointment, can get more completed because what is actually a procedure that requires hours of work by the dentist, only feels like minutes to the actual patient. This means that more work can be done in a shorter amount of procedures.