Sedation Dentistry: The Solution to Dental Anxiety

What is pill sedation dentistry?

Hi, Dr. Robert Stanley, Smile Engineer. Today, I’d like to talk to you about sedation dentistry. So, there are a lot of different levels to sedation dentistry in terms of what we can offer people who are anxious or just need to be relaxed a little bit when they come into the dental office.

The first one we can do is pill sedation. We can give you something to relax you before you come and a couple of pills when you’re in the office. Now, I always like to warn people with this pill sedation, that it’s important to understand that this is like having a glass of wine or something. It just takes the edge off most of the time. If you think that you are going to need a little bit more than that, then that’s where IV sedation comes into play.

What is IV sedation?

When we do IV sedation, we place an IV, usually in the arm somewhere or the hand, and the IV allows us to administer medication very rapidly. Now, the nice thing about this is that we can control the situation much more quickly and efficiently by using IV sedation. If we want to give you just a little bit more to make you a little bit more relaxed, we can do that. And we can stop it and as soon as we stop, the medicine wears off very, very quickly.

So, IV sedation is excellent for people that have not been to the dentist in a long time because of fear. We have a lot of those patients come in and they’ve had a bad experience when they were younger. They say: “Hey, I’m just really having a hard time just sitting across from you and talking to you.” Those kinds of people? Those are the most excellent patients for IV sedation because you come in, we wrap you in a warm blanket, you go off to la-la land, and when you wake up, your restorations are all done.

One of the nice things about doing IV sedation in an office like ours is that we have the ability to do a multitude of procedures all at the same time. So, say, for instance, you need a filling, and a crown, and a root canal, and an extraction — a variety of different things. You can get them all done in one short appointment. So, it’s a very efficient use of your time.

Want to learn more about how we do sedation dentistry in our office?

Sedation dentistry is the best and safest way to overcome dental anxiety. Set up a free consultation with Dr. Robert Stanley to learn more about which dental sedation option is right for you. Feel free to request an appointment here or call (919) 460-9665.