At Contemporary Dentistry, we believe that good oral health is a vital foundation for overall health. After all, gum disease doesn’t just threaten your teeth, it threatens your heart, and tooth decay can inhibit a child’s growth, and these are just two examples of this all-important connection.
That’s why we think it’s vitally important for every person to get dental care, including those with dental anxiety. Even if anxiety would keep you away from the dentist, sedation dentistry can make it easier to get the dental care you need.
We offer three options for dental sedation to help people with all levels of anxiety.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide is the best dental sedation choice for people with mild dental anxiety. If you can easily make it to our office but have difficulty sitting through a procedure without fidgeting too much, tensing up painfully, or gagging too much, then nitrous oxide is a great choice.
Nitrous oxide is an inhalable gas that works quickly to reduce your anxiety, and it can even diminish pain. We can turn it on when you sit down, and turn it off when you’re ready to leave. You can drive yourself to and from our office so there’s a minimum of disruption to your normal schedule.
The disadvantage of nitrous oxide is that it can only work for people with relatively mild levels of anxiety.
Oral Sedation
Oral sedation is usually the best choice if your dental anxiety is more intense. Moderate dental anxiety responds very well to oral sedation. It can even help if your anxiety starts the night (or several nights) before your appointment.
Oral sedation is a pill you take about half an hour before you come to our office. By the time you reach our office, you should be in a conscious but relaxed state. You’re unlikely to remember much of your appointment–the time will just fly by. If you have problems sleeping the night before, we can sometimes prescribe a pill you can take to help you sleep.
The disadvantage of oral sedation is that it takes time to recover from the medication, so you may not be able to do much else on the day of your appointment. You will need someone to get you to and from your appointment, and stay with you all day. You may also need several appointments to get through all your treatment due to the length of time the drug is effective for.
IV Sedation
IV sedation is the best choice for people with high levels of dental anxiety. The medication is delivered directly to your bloodstream, which means it can act quickly, can be very potent, and can be continued for as long as necessary to complete whatever work you need done.
IV sedation does carry more risk than the other types of sedation dentistry, although it’s very safe when performed by a properly trained dentist–like Dr. Geminiani–in a properly equipped office like ours.
As with oral sedation, IV sedation can take a while to wear off. We will keep you in our office until you’ve recovered to a certain level, and then we’ll turn you over to a responsible adult, who should stay with you for the rest of the day.
Which Sedation Option Is Right for You?
If you are having difficulty making your dental appointments, or even if you’re making them, but they’re unpleasant because of anxiety, we invite you to call (585) 244-3337 today to schedule a consultation at Contemporary Dentistry in Rochester, NY.
