Dental Sedation
Sedation is an altered state of consciousness where the person becomes less aware of the surrounding environment as well as biological senses such as pain, smell, touch. Sedation is often used in health field as a method to control anxious and phobic patients. The use of sedation in dentistry is known as Dental Sedation or Sedation Dentistry or Sleep Dentistry.
Various types of sedation techniques are used in dentistry depending on the needs of the patient. These include sedation through inhalation, Intravenous sedation, Oral sedation etc. Sedation alters the consciousness level of the patient to a minimum which is required for patient co-operation. Patients undergoing sedation do not remember the details of the procedure performed on them and often feel that their appointment lasted only a few minutes where as it might have been a complex surgery requiring a few hours.
Types of Dental Sedation
There major types of dental sedation used by sedation dentists are as follows:
- 1. Oral Sedatives
Sedation through oral route is done by sedative medications such as diazepam prior to the dental procedure. Oral sedatives do not alter the pain response of the patient but reduce the anxiety of the patient. Oral sedation is the method of choice for phobic patients.
- 2. Intravenous (IV) Sedation
Intravenous sedation is done through the intravenous route and does not provide pain relief like the oral sedatives. However, they are more effective than oral sedatives at controlling anxiety.
- 3. Nitrous Oxide Sedation
It is administered through inhalation. Nitrous Oxide is popularly known as the laughing gas. It induces a state of relaxation in the patient.
- 4. General Anesthesia
General Anesthesia renders the patient unconscious and the patient is completely unaware of his/her surroundings till the effect of the general anesthesia wears off. An important element of general anesthesia is that patient will not be experiencing any pain.
Benefits of dental sedation
- Dental sedation is mainly targeted towards the apprehensive and anxious patients. Patients often delay and avoid dental work due to phobia. Sedation dentistry takes care of that.
- A major benefit of sleep dentistry is that people do not realize the amount of time spent in the clinic. The patient is in an altered state of consciousness. So, a procedure lasting few hours can seem like a few minutes to the patient.
- Phobic patients who can’t stand the sight or smell of blood are relaxed through dental sedation.
- It is a simple an effective procedure and not associated with any side effects.
- Long, time consuming and multiple procedures can completed in one appointment saving the patient time and money.
