Dental care can be an impossible task when you have anxiety or fear of the dental chair or dental office. If you’ve had a negative experience with a previous dentist, the dentists at Texas Dentistry can understand why you’d be hesitant to receive treatment. With sedation dentistry, it doesn’t matter what caused your anxiety of dental visits, we can make them easy! Everyone deserves necessary dental care, which is why our dental office provides every method of sedation available, including hospital-grade sedation! You don’t have to worry about getting treatments completed when you give us a call for relaxing sedation dentistry in Mesquite!
If you have moderate difficulty receiving dental treatments, oral conscious sedation may be the best option for you. This sedative comes in the form of a pill that is taken orally several hours before your appointment. By the time you arrive, you should feel incredibly relaxed and prepared to receive the care you need. Keep in mind that you’ll still be awake during treatment, but will be able to tell the dentist how comfortable you’re feeling as well. Because of the sedative’s strength, you should have a friend or family member drive you to and from our practice.
As its name suggests, oral conscious sedation is a form of medication that you’ll take by mouth that will allow you to remain conscious, but sedated. This is ideal for many patients who wish they could be “put to sleep” for their dental treatments. Oral conscious sedation will cause you to feel very groggy, and many patients report feeling as if they slept through their treatment because they don’t remember anything about it afterwards. Nonetheless, you’ll remain awake enough during your appointment to follow simple instructions, answer basic questions, and tell us if you feel uncomfortable.
Once we’ve determined that oral conscious sedation is a good choice for you, we’ll prescribe you a personalized dose of medication. You’ll take this pill or liquid before your appointment, and the calming effects will gradually take effect. By the time you arrive for your appointment, you should feel deeply relaxed! Once you’ve settled into the examination chair, we’ll get to work on your smile while you sit back and relax. You may even drift off to sleep, but we’ll be able to easily awaken you with a gentle nudge. After your appointment, you’ll still feel quite sedated, so you’ll need a friend or family member to drive you home. It will take a few hours for the effects to fully wear off, and you likely won’t remember much (if anything) about your treatment!
Most patients are considered good candidates for oral conscious sedation. In fact, we regularly recommend oral conscious sedation for both children and adults alike! This safe and reliable form of sedation dentistry is a very good option for patients who:
The best way to tell if oral conscious sedation is right for you or your child is to come visit us for an appointment. So don’t hesitate to give us a call today!
If you have mild difficulty receiving care, nitrous oxide in Mesquite offers a way for you to relax in the dental chair. This method combines nitrous oxide and oxygen to create a sedative that makes patients feel calmer almost instantly. The sedative is administered via a nasal mask, allowing you to breathe it in throughout your treatment. Once you come to the practice, all you have to do is wear the mask and tell us if you need additional sedative to feel comfortable. Once treatment is complete, nitrous oxide wears off quickly, allowing you to resume your normal activities right away.
Nitrous oxide is suitable for most patients, from young children to seasoned adults. It may be appropriate for you if you:
There are only a few groups for whom nitrous oxide is not recommended. If you are pregnant or have certain respiratory problems or allergies, we may need to look for other methods to make you comfortable during treatment.
Nitrous oxide is administered through a comfortable nasal mask. No needles or pills are involved. Once the mask is fitted on you, we use a machine to send nitrous oxide and oxygen through the mask. As soon as you begin to breathe it in, you should start to feel relaxed. Some patients also feel a little silly. We can adjust your level of sedation throughout treatment as necessary.
Once your procedure concludes, we will remove the mask, and within minutes, you should be back to feeling normal. You will even be alert enough to drive yourself home!
Even though the effects of nitrous oxide wear off quickly, your sedation dentist in Mesquite will still ask you to stay in our office for a few minutes so we can monitor you for any adverse reactions (which are quite rare). Thereafter, you will be free to resume your normal activities, whether that involves going to work, returning to school, or other routine tasks.
However, keep in mind that, depending on the procedure you underwent, you may need to take it easy at home for a while. Be sure to follow any aftercare instructions provided by our team. We want you to enjoy an easy and smooth recovery!
Do you have severe fear or high levels of anxiety when you visit the dentist? IV sedation is the strongest form of sedation dentistry available today because of the strength and method in which the sedative is provided. Since these sedatives are provided intravenously, or directly into the veins, the effects are immediate and quite powerful. Even though this sedative is stronger than other methods, you’ll still be fully awake to receive commands and inform us of your comfort levels. Those with disabilities may find IV sedation the most ideal, especially if you have trouble staying still in the dental chair. Make sure to have a ride to and from the practice planned ahead of time.
General anesthesia is separate from all other forms of sedation because it does, in fact, put you into a sleep-like state. It is more often used for medical procedures, including surgery. However, our dentists are fully trained and qualified to administer it for dental procedures as well. We’ll carefully regulate the medications used to put you to sleep and pay close attention to your vitals during treatment. If dental treatments are so difficult for you to complete that even IV sedation cannot help, we may recommend general anesthesia. This is largely because it removes all signals and reflexes to the brain.
When you’re already feeling anxious about an upcoming dental appointment, asking questions about sedation shouldn’t have to be difficult. We want to make care as easy as possible for all of our patients at Texas Dentistry, which is why we have included a handful of the most common questions we hear. Should you have other concerns you’d like to address, we encourage you to give us a call directly. In the meantime, we hope that you find our detailed responses helpful, either for yourself or a family member who may be feeling apprehensive about their next visit.
When people refer to the term “laughing gas,” they are mainly referring to nitrous oxide as it is a gas-based sedative. The reason people refer to it in this way is because it has a tendency to create a euphoric sensation in the patient once administered. Not only does the sedative have calming and warming effects, but it also acts as a mild anesthetic, ensuring your physical comfort needs are met just as much as your mental needs.
Not necessarily. We often recommend sedation for those with mild to severe anxiety because that is the most common reason it’s needed. However, sedation is ideal for patients with many specific needs. For example, those with a cognitive or mental disability may find it much easier to complete treatment with sedation. Additionally, those who have a sensitive gag reflex or low pain tolerance may find sedation ideal. If you need to have many consecutive treatments performed, sedation can ensure that you get them all completed in a single appointment.
This depends on the strength of the sedation you choose. For example, since nitrous oxide is gently inhaled, the effects begin to go away soon after the nasal mask is removed. The side effects, if there are any, may include mild dizziness and fatigue, but this is uncommon. Keep in mind that other, stronger sedatives like oral conscious sedation and IV sedation will require several hours of time to completely wear off. The same applies to general anesthesia, which can take a full 24 hours for the effects to completely dissipate.
No. The only sedation option that involves inducing a coma is general anesthesia, which is largely reserved for surgeries that occur in hospitals. It’s considered our least-commonly used sedation option as most patients do not need it to get comfortable for their treatment. With that said, our team is trained to administer all levels of sedation provided at our office.
When provided by a professional, there is no reason to be afraid of sedation dentistry. Our team members have not only received the required certifications to administer sedation, but have done so already for hundreds of patients, both at Texas Dentistry and outside the office in previous professional roles. When provided by an experienced team, sedation is 100% safe.