Here at Summit Family & Cosmetic Dentistry, we offer sedation dentistry as a simple and convenient solution for patients with dental anxiety to get the care they need. With sedation dentistry, your nervousness and fears are eliminated, and your sensitivity to pain is decreased. This helps us complete complex dental procedures in fewer visits while you remain relaxed and stress-free.
Common Reasons for Sedation Dentistry
Although sedation dentistry is most commonly used for patients with dental phobia or anxiety, there are additional reasons it can help. Other reasons we may suggest sedatives include:
- Bad gag reflex
- Undergoing multiple procedures
- Sensitive teeth
- Resistance to anesthesia
- Inability to sit still in the dentist’s chair
We Offer Oral Sedation
Everyone deserves to undergo dental treatment without feeling worried or stressed out. To ensure you feel relaxed and confident in our team, we offer oral sedative medication. This popular method of sedation helps gradually ease your nerves as you come in for your appointment. Once you take the medication, you’ll feel comfortable and ready for your dental procedure.
Coming in for Your Treatment
About an hour prior to your visit, you will take the oral sedative that Dr. López provided to you during a previous visit. A loved one will give you a ride to your appointment, and you will begin to feel completely relaxed even before you arrive at our office.
Throughout your procedure, our team will closely monitor you the entire visit to ensure you feel calm and aren’t experiencing any pain. Oral sedation will sometimes make patients drowsy enough to the point they fall asleep, and many times they’ll wake up and not remember anything from the surgery.
Once your procedure is finished, we recommend that a friend or family member drive you home because the oral medication may not wear off right away.
Frequently Asked Oral Sedation Questions
As long as it’s administered by a licensed dentist, oral sedation is completely safe. Dr. Lopez is a trained sedation dentist who has completed extensive education on the subject. Rest assured, he’ll monitor your vital signs throughout your procedure to ensure your safety.
If you suffer from certain health conditions such as obesity or sleep apnea, sedation may not be a good idea for you. These conditions and a few others have been linked to complications during sedation. When you meet Dr. Lopez for your consultation, make sure to inform him of any medical conditions so he can determine if sedation is safe for you.
The effects of oral sedation often linger for an hour or two after treatment, leaving you feeling groggy and unfocused. As a result, you’ll need to arrange for someone to drive you home after your appointment. We recommend making plans with a friend or family member in advance so you can relax and don’t have to worry about how you’ll get home.
Oral sedation shouldn’t result in any long-term side effects. After the procedure, you may experience dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, or headaches, but these symptoms should be mild and will fade in an hour or two. In fact, many patients don’t report any symptoms at all from oral sedation. As long as your treatment is performed by an experienced dentist, you have nothing to worry about.
