What is the best sleep dentistry?

Some patients can become anxious when they see the dentist and may not be able to relax to receive treatment. To aid them there is a need to use sedation. There are three ways that dental sedation can be used to help patients relax for treatment.

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous oxide , also known as “laughing gas” is mixed with oxygen and delivered through a small mask over the nose. Your will be asked to breathe through the nose and as the gas begins to work, one usually will become less agitated and nervous. Since nitrous oxide does not interact with the human cells a large research found that ” it has impressive safety and is excellent for providing minimal and moderate sedation for apprehensive dental patients.”

Conscious Sedation

Also known as sleep dentistry or IV sedation, is for patients who need sedative medicines. This method uses drugs which lead the patient to a deep level of sleep and require more experience and the patient needs to be monitored continuously during the procedure . At our practice we have a specially trained dental anesthetist that administers the sedatives and monitors the patient during the whole procedure. There are quite a few drugs that can be used for sleep dentistry. But most of the time a single benzodiazepine, usually midazolam, is used. Since the drugs do interact with the human cells, recovery from the drugs is not complete at the end of dental treatment. You will need to be escorted by a responsible adult and take the day off.

General Anesthesia

Sometimes a patient needs to be unconscious in order for us to safely complete the needed dental treatment. Under general anesthesia the patient is in a deep sleep, where he loses the ability to breathe by himself. This is why general anesthesia carries risk and is done in special locations like hospitals or large clinics, where the special staff and equipment are available to deal with an emergency condition. But recently it has been discovered that the drugs used for the general anesthesia have long lasting effects on the brain. This is why I advise my patients to restrict the use of general anesthesia only to the times when there are no other alternatives.

In conclusion nitrous oxide is the best sedation, since it is safe and has positive effects, like reducing the gag effect, and the anxiety some feel when coming to the dentist. I have used it for wisdom tooth extractions, root canal treatment, long treatments and even for tooth cleaning when needed with much success. The patients who have it return happily for their maintenance appointments since they realise that dental treatment is not stressful.

Please don’t hesitate to contact Dr. Kaufman or to call today Tooronga Family Dentistry, phone number 98227006, for more information about dental treatment under sedation or to have a consultation to give nitrous oxide a go.