Everyone needs to take care of their oral and dental health. But for people with dental fears, dental anxieties, or even phobias about dentists or dental procedures, their oral health can suffer.
At Mid-Peninsula Dental Specialists, we want to make sure you’re able to keep your teeth in great shape while staying calm and comfortable — and that’s what our sedation dentistry options can provide.
When you’re nervous, anxious, or stressed, your body undergoes chemical changes that can have an impact on your dental procedures. But with sedation keeping anxiety and stress at bay, the procedure goes more smoothly and prevents those unhelpful feelings of nervousness from wreaking havoc on your system.
Even without additional fears, people undergoing long procedures, or multiple procedures, often appreciate the benefits of sedation dentistry. Sedation dentistry can also help in other situations, such as for people with a sensitive gag reflex or people who have a hard time holding still for the length of their procedure.
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For people who just want to take the edge off of their dental fear, a mild sedation option like laughing gas (nitrous oxide) may be the right choice. Because it’s a gas, it’s administered by inhalation, usually through a mask. With gas sedation, you’ll still be awake during your procedure, but you’ll be much more calm and relaxed.
In addition to its calming effects, another big benefit of nitrous oxide is that it’s fast-acting, allowing you to be ready for your procedure right away — and it also leaves your system quickly, meaning you can still drive yourself home. In fact, this is the only one of our sedation options available for people who don’t want to arrange an alternate ride.
With this form of sedation, you’ll be administered an oral prescription medication (in pill or liquid form) that will provide deep relaxation. Sometimes people are so relaxed that they even fall asleep during their procedure — but they’re still easy to wake if the dental care team needs to check-in or communicate about the procedure.
This level of sedation does affect motor skills, meaning you’ll need to arrange for someone to give you a ride home after your procedure.
With IV sedation, you may either fall asleep or remain awake in a completely relaxed state – without any anxiety or worries during your procedure.
There are benefits to IV sedation in dentistry, particularly for dental implant procedures and other intensive oral surgeries. Because we dose the medication for your metabolism, we’re able to give you the optimal mix of medications (much more accurately through an IV than orally) that will remain in your body during the initial healing period after the procedure—that means that IV sedation not only gets you through the dental implant procedure without anxiety or fear, but the leftover dose in your body can also help you heal faster.
With general anesthesia, you’re completely unconscious during your dental procedure. This is the kind of anesthesia usually associated with having surgery in a hospital — but it can be used for dental procedures, too!
Don’t let anxiety or worry about dental procedures prevent you from taking care of your oral health. Many patients have fears or worries about oral surgery, and more still have phobias about the dentist in general. These fears can be diminished with our sedation options, which we’re happy to offer our dental patients after a consultation to ensure the right fit for your needs.
Talk to our specialists about your fears — your oral health deserves it.
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Fri: 7:00 AM – 11:00 AM
Sat-Sun: Closed
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