What is the Purpose of Sedation Dentistry?
Sedation dentistry is medicine that reduces physical pain during a dental procedure. While it primarily reduces physical pain, it also aids in reducing anxiety in patients. For patients not wanting to remember the procedure, we use stronger medicine to “knock them out”.
This makes the overall experience more pleasant while ensuring the staff can perform their duties effectively. General anesthesia, laughing gas, IV sedation, and oral sedation are some of the various forms of dental sedation available. For surgical procedures at Life Bloom Dental we often use oral sedation and laughing gas.
What type of anesthesia are used for dental work?
The most common types of anesthesia used are local anesthesia, oral sedation, IV sedation and general anesthesia. For the stronger types of anesthesia, we recommend finding another person to drive you to the clinic.
Local anesthesia is anesthesia that most patients are familiar with. It is placed directly in the treatment area. The medicine numbs the tooth and gums, allowing for painless dental procedures.
Oral sedation is a wonderful option for anxious patients to reduce or eliminate anxiety at the dental office. Once you take a pill, oral sedation also leaves little to no memory of the procedure – it’s almost as if you were never here!
IV sedation is a deeper type of anesthesia that achieves a period of brief sedation with very little memory of the surgery. This medicine takes effect quickly and works very well.
General anesthesia produces a more profound sedation that usually leaves no memory of the actual procedure. It’s typically used for patients with extreme dental anxiety who need surgical procedures such as tooth extractions, dental implants or other surgical procedures and the patient is unconscious during the process.
What is laughing gas and what does it do?
Laughing gas (nitrous oxide) is a very safe, effective, and commonly used sedation method. It’s primary purpose is to reduce anxiety. Once inhaled, laughing gas gives the patient a “floaty feeling” and often the patient feels giddy as the name implies. It works extremely well to calm down an anxious patient, is extremely safe and since its effects can be reversed very quickly. You don’t need a separate driver for this type of anesthesia.