With oral sedation your next trip to the dentist can feel like relaxing on the beach
What is Sleep Dentistry?
“Sleep Dentistry” is heard in radio advertisements. The better description is Oral Sedation Dentistry. Patients are not put to sleep! Their anxieties are lessened and there is near-total amnesia of the procedures performed (extraction, implant, root canal, etc.).
How does it sedation dentistry work?
I’ve prescribed Halcion, “the little blue pill”, for my dental-phobic patients for years. The longer I practice, the more dental phobics find me. It is a very safe drug, but it does require supervision by a licensed dentist and trained dental assistants. I give my patients a prescription for the pills and they bring them to the office where they take two. Within 30 minutes they are very sedate and have the happy camper attitude. Patients will feel like they are in the beach chair photo above, instead of the dental chair. It not only helps the patient through the procedure, it helps the dentist, too. Anxiety can be hard on everyone.
I often use nitrous oxide, or “laughing gas”, with the oral sedation. They perform well together and are safe with proper monitoring. Some patients seem to be having great fun—too bad they won’t remember the party!
Are there any restrictions after oral sedation?
Patients taking oral sedation cannot drive that day and they need supervision by a responsible adult until bedtime. Once, a father forgot to pick up his daughter and my wife and I had an extra child that night.
What about patients who aren’t extremely afraid of the dentist?
At this point in dentistry, it is fine to use oral sedation even if you aren’t phobic. It’s OK if you just don’t want to remember that root canal.
