Dental sedation serves various purposes to relieve anxiety and provide complete pain relief during invasive therapies. Extracting teeth with infections is comfortable for the dentist and the patient because sedation dentistry from Zen Dental relaxes patients who may not even realize they underwent an invasive procedure.
If you are fearful of getting your teeth cleaned or scared to step inside a dentist’s office despite an excruciating toothache, sedation dentistry in NE Calgary, AB, can relieve some of your anxiety with dental sedation. Sedation dentistry is beneficial for various purposes, from simple dental cleaning to invasive procedures like root canals. Your fear determines what level of sedation you receive from the Calgary dentist.
Explaining Sedation Dentistry
The use of medication to help you relax during various dental procedures is called sedation dentistry. Sometimes it has also been referred to as sleep dentistry, although the description is not accurate. Sedation dentistry ensures you are awake during your treatment unless you receive general anesthesia.
The different levels of sedation can leave you in a relaxed condition, thinking that your procedure lasted only for a few minutes when you may have spent more time in the dentist’s chair. You may receive moderate sedation causing you to slur your words when speaking and not recollecting much of the procedure. If you are undergoing an intensive process, you can request deep sedation leaving you on the edge of consciousness but responsive to the dentist if required.
If you are affected by severe dental anxiety and cannot tolerate the sight of the dentist, the professional delivering general anesthesia makes you entirely unconscious and without any memory of the procedure.
What Kind of Sedatives Are Used in Sedation Dentistry?
The kinds of sedatives used in sedation dentistry are:
- Inhaled Minimal Sedation: Inhaled minimal sedation requires you to breathe nitrous oxide combined with oxygen from a mask placed over your nose. Nitrous oxide, also called laughing gas, helps you relax and allows the dentist to perform conscious sedation dental procedures comfortably without you moving around the dentist’s chair. In addition, nitrous oxide allows you to drive home after your dental treatment.
- Oral Sedation: You may receive minimal or moderate oral sedation from sedation dentistry near me with pills like tranquilizers and muscle relaxants to making drowsy but keep you awake. The dentist asks you to take the medication an hour before your procedure and have help around you to drive to and from the appointment after receiving the treatment required.
- Intravenous Moderate Sedation: You receive sedative drugs through a vein helping it to deliver instant results. The technique enables the dentist to adjust the sedation levels continually as required.
- General Anesthesia or Deep Sedation: the dentist delivers medications that make you entirely asleep or unconscious during your dental procedure. While under general anesthesia, awakening you are challenging until the effects of the sedatives wear off, or they are reversed by the anesthesiologist.
Whether you receive inhaled sedation or general anesthesia, you still need local anesthesia in your mouth for pain management because sedation dentistry controls your anxiety.
Is Dental Sedation Dangerous?
On the contrary, dental sedation is appropriate for anyone fearful of dentists and avoiding essential dental treatments. Most dentists administer minimal sedation like nitrous oxide or pills. Many dentists are also experienced in providing moderate sedation. A tiny percent of dentists have completed the commission on dental accreditation CODA in general anesthesia and deep sedation helpful for complex procedures. Many dentists use help from dentist anesthesiologists specially trained different levels of anesthesia and sedation to children and adults. Therefore if you are recommended dental sedation, rest assured the dentist takes all precautions necessary to relieve your anxiety and provide you comfortable treatments that you don’t even recollect.
Known side effects of dental sedation
Dental sedation is undoubtedly safe when administered by an experienced dentist. However, obese people and people with obstructive sleep apnea should discuss the problem with the dentist before having sedation. Complications are likely to develop among these people from anesthesia.
Some common and known side effects of sedation dentistry depending on various factors, including the type of sedation delivered and your reactions. Not everyone develops the same side effects, but some are more common than others, including dry mouth, nausea or vomiting, drowsiness, blurred vision, and challenges concentrating or following instructions.
The best part of sedation dentistry is that it allows you to get essential dental treatments when required without delaying the procedures until later to need invasive therapies. Best of all, the significant side effects of dental sedation are relatively minor and are better overlooked in favor of your continued dental health.
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