What Is Sedation Dentistry?
From the word sedation which means putting the person in the state of calmness, easy and relaxed condition with the use of sedatives, sedation dentistry is employed by putting the patient in these states before undergoing a dental treatment. This process is done to enable people overcome their “dental phobia” and receive dental care so that any possible complications with their dental problems can be avoided.
According to the DOCS (Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation), an organization of professionals that deals with ensuring patients to have a comfortable, safe and anxiety-free dental care, almost 30 percent of Americans are avoiding the dentists due to fear. With this data, there is a great concern that the common “dental phobia” is an overpowering belief that needs to be addressed because this compromised the health and functionality of the mouths of a large population of people. Obviously there is one culprit here that needs to be eliminated to prevent fear among people and that is the use of the needles. This is where sedation dentistry can be of use.
In recent years, dentist use intravenous or IV sedation to deliver sedatives into the patient to put him to a relaxed state. Then this was followed by the use of sedative drugs such as tranquilizers with the use of the needles. Needless to say this has brought fear to many especially to children. However, more comforting methods have surfaced in the process of using sedation dentistry methods. There are now the safe anti-anxiety medications, nitrous oxide or laughing gas, and depressants just to put patients in calm state without the pain of injection.
The advantage of using sedation dentistry is that the patients often experience quick procedures even though the dental procedure has taken few hours to perform. This makes the procedure more acceptable and eliminate “dental phobia”. Convincing people to visit the dentist’s clinic is now easier and patients can maintain a level of cooperation while at the same time raising their consciousness with the need for oral hygiene and proper dental care.