Dental fear is real and affects as many as 50 to 80% of adults in America. While many dentists know the reality of dental anxiety and fear, few have the technology to help you overcome it. Thankfully, at Denver Dental Arts, we offer painless dentistry to make you more relaxing and comfortable.
Does the thought of even having a simple procedure like dental cleaning make you cringe? Would you rather endure oral pain than book an appointment with a dentist? Regardless of your fears, Drs. Nathen Ellis and Gary Hubbard recommend IV conscious sedation dentistry to ensure you don’t miss crucial dental appointments.
Before embarking on how concious sedation dentistry can help you overcome dental fear, let’s look at the sources of your fear for the dentist. What makes you avoid that dental appointment? While the exact cause of the fear may be hard to point out, there are several factors that aggravate your dental anxiety. Some causes include:
While there could be many causes of dental fear, sedation or sleep dentistry may help you overcome your fear of the dentist, keeping you calm and composed as the dentist works on your teeth and gums.
Dentists use several types of sedatives to help fearful patients. Nitrous Oxide (laughing gas) involves using a mask to make you feel at ease during your appointment. Once the gas is removed, the sedation effects wear off, and you can go about your everyday activities.
For patients who fear injections or don’t want to wear a mask, it doesn’t mean that the only options to calm your nerves are out of the window. Oral conscious sedation was invented for people like you.
This method involves taking a prescription oral medication an hour or so before your dental appointment. The medication won’t put you to sleep but will give you a deep state of relaxation. You will be alert to follow through with the procedure and even converse with your dentist. While your dental procedure may last for hours, you will feel like it lasted a few minutes, with little recollection of the procedure details.
Similar to taking a prescription oral medication for sedation, IV sedation induces a very deep state of relaxation. IV sedation involves injecting you with a sedative through an IV and the effects are felt almost immediately. This sedation is ideal for patients with severe dental anxiety.
Because of the drowsiness of the medication (oral prescription and IV), you need someone to drive you to and from your dental office. Better yet, take the rest of the day off to allow the sedation to wear off completely.
There is no reason to skip that crucial dental appointment because of dental anxiety. Please dial (704) 908-6969 to book an appointment with Denver Dental Arts of Denver, NC, for conscious sedation dentistry.
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