What Happens When You Get Sedated at the Dentist?

What Happens When You Get Sedated at the Dentist?

May 1, 2022

Are you scheduled for your routine dental exam and must get your teeth cleaned? Does the thought of visiting your dentist stress you? Do you prefer to endure toothaches instead of stepping into your dentist’s office? Kindly do not consider yourself alone because nearly 30 percent of Americans suffer from dental phobia and prefer not to receive dental care.

If you feel the plague is better than your dentist, you will express surprise when you hear sedation dentistry is the perfect antidote for you to overcome dental phobia and receive essential dental care. Dental sedation is helpful for any procedure, minor or significant, and depends on the severity of your dental anxiety.

What Can I Expect at Sedation Dentistry?

At sedation dentistry, you can expect to receive medication before your procedure to help you relax. Sedation dentistry also has an acronym as ‘sleep dentistry,’ which isn’t accurate. You remain awake after receiving the medications from painless dentists for your safety and cooperation. Sleep dentistry is a term used when the sedation renders you entirely unconscious.

When you visit sedation dentistry in Clute, TX, you receive mild to deep sedation, helping you relax using medications like tranquilizers, depressants, anti-anxiety medications, nitrous oxide, et cetera administered in various ways. Oral conscious sedation is the most common technique adopted by dentists in America and Canada to quell patient fears. The medications dentists provide create a comfortable experience to ensure most patients do not recollect their visit. However, oral sedation maintains a level of consciousness in you for safety and cooperation.

Do You Feel Pain with Sedation Dentistry?

Sedation dentistry is to help you manage your anxiety when receiving dental care. The techniques merely help with anxiety management without playing a role in pain management.

Regardless of the medications you receive, you require pain management medications in the form of local anesthesia delivered at the site where the dentist works in your mouth. Local anesthesia helps relieve pain if your procedure is uncomfortable.

What Kinds of Sedation Are Used in Dentistry?

The dentist in Clute, TX, provides four types of sedation. They are:

  • Inhaled Minimal Sedation: with minimal sedation, you breathe nitrous oxide or laughing gas, and it is also known through a mask over your nose with oxygen. The gas relaxes you and allows your dentist to control the sedation you receive. The gas wears off quickly after your procedure and is the only form of sedation permitting you to drive yourself back home after your treatment.
  • Oral Sedation: the level of dosage provided by the dentist for oral sedation can range from minimal to moderate. You take pills an hour before your procedure, and the drug makes you drowsy. You might receive a larger dose to produce moderate sedation. You might become groggy from moderate oral sedation to falling asleep in the dentist’s chair. However, the dentist can awaken you if required with a gentle nudge.
  • IV Moderate Sedation: You receive sedative drugs through your vein, helping them function quickly. IV sedation allows your dentist to adjust the levels continually.
  • Deep Sedation or General Anesthesia: You receive medications that render you unconscious and deeply asleep during your dental procedure. However, awakening you are a challenge under general anesthesia unless the effects of the anesthetic wear off or are reversed by the anesthetist.

Who is Eligible for Sedation Dentistry?

Dental sedation is excellent for patients with dental anxiety, preventing them from visiting dentists even for essential dental treatments. You qualify for sedation dentistry if you have a low pain threshold, find it challenging to sit still in the dentist’s chair, have sensitive teeth, a gag reflex, and need extensive dental work.

Children are also eligible for sedation dentistry if they are terrified of dental visits or are uncooperative during their meetings. Nitrous oxide is safe for children because any dentist can administer it. In addition, many pediatric dentists receive training to provide children oral sedation by giving the recommended dose for the child after considering their age and weight.

Can Any Dentist Administer Sedation?

Administering minimal sedation such as nitrous oxide and pills is not challenging for most dentists. However, a minor percentage of dentists have completed the program of the commission on dental accreditation in deep sedation and general anesthesia and use the complicated techniques if required on their patients. These specialists are generally oral and maxillofacial surgeons with knowledge of providing higher levels of sedation.

Now that you know sedation dentistry can help overcome dental phobia and receive any treatments you need, kindly call UR Smile Dental Group for your next dental appointment and stop neglecting your dental care.

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