Important Facts to Know About Sedation Dentistry

Afflicted with dental anxiety? Then you have certainly come across the concept of sedation dentistry once or more in your lifetime. To put in simple terms, sedation is the technique that is used to let you relax and be at ease, when you are sitting in front of your dentist.

As is commonly known, sedation primarily comes in three variants – Inhaled, Oral and Intravenous (IV). however, certain interesting facts to know about sedation dentistry are:

There are common dental cases when you have little choice, but go for sedation in order to make the treatment procedure smooth, both for you as well as your dentist! Instances when you might opt for a sedation are:

The two drugs are quite different from each other. Anesthetics are clearly the ones that numb a particular area by deactivating the nerves there. Whereas, sedatives are simply medicines that allow patients to relax. One might only feel a little drowsy by taking sedatives. Whereas, a general anesthesia makes you totally unconscious for the entire treatment period.

You must have heard that, with general anesthesia, it is difficult to determine the dosage and in case it becomes more than necessary, recovering back to the conscious state is at stake. Moreover, since sedation is a “lighter sleep” than a general anesthesia, your dentist can ask you to open your eyes after a procedure is done, or you can even respond to stimuli such that the doctor knows if you are facing any issues while he is doing your teeth!

As the associated risks with sedation dentistry are a lot less, and that patients don’t tend to skip their dental checkups from fear or anxiety, sedation is greatly preferred by dentists. It allows them to perform dental procedures on their patients, without having to administer anesthesia unnecessarily.

If you are afraid of that – needle pricking to be specific – you hardly need to worry. Sedation can be administered orally. Injections are not needed for sedation.

Short and simple procedures which do not necessarily require numbing the area (as they are mostly painless) are dealt more conveniently with sedation. When your child needs to keep still for a longer period, say for an MRI or some other procedures, your dentist at once resorts to a sedation. It makes the job much easier for both him and his patient too!

Certain health conditions do not permit anesthesia. Like, heart or lung problems, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, drug allergy are certain cases where administering general anesthesia becomes risky. These are situations, when sedation comes to the rescue.

Therefore, to the dental world sedation has lot to contribute. Due to its virtues, it is not only preferred by the doctors but also their patients. To catch hold of some first hand information, you might talk to your dentist to get more acquainted with sedation dentistry.