Whether you’re a good candidate for oral sedation in Thunder Bay – or one of the other forms of sedation dentistry – depends on a lot of factors that your dentist will review carefully with you, including your medical history and any prior experience with sedative drugs. Is it worth even bringing up the prospect of sedation dentistry with a dentist near you? If you fall into any of the following categories, you may benefit from receiving sedation dentistry:
● If you’ve experienced traumatic dental treatment in the past
● If you experience dental phobia
● If you experience physical, mental or emotional impairments making it difficult to remain calm and still
● If you have an unusually small mouth or tend to become sore quickly during dental care
● A particularly sensitive gag reflex or hypersensitive oral nerves
● Difficulty tolerating or resistance to oral anesthetic
● If you’re anticipating undergoing lengthy or complex dental procedures, such as root canal therapy, tooth extractions or dental implants
Receiving sedation dentistry near you is less common for routine dental checkups or procedures than for complex or prolonged procedures, but mild levels of sedation dentistry can help nervous or anxious patients overcome barriers to even routine dental treatment. The staff at Current River Family Dental can tailor the level of sedation to your particular needs and the procedures you’ll undergo.
What are the benefits of sedation dentistry?
There are several levels of sedation dentistry available from a dentist in Thunder Bay depending on your personal circumstances and the type of dental treatment you’re expecting to undergo. Your dentist will describe the benefits and procedures of each option to help you to decide which alternative is best for you. The levels of sedation dentistry are, from mildest to most significant: nitrous oxide (laughing gas); oral sedation via a tablet; intravenous (IV) sedation; and general anesthesia (at a specialist surgical clinic under medical supervision). There are several benefits of sedation dentistry at the right level for you and your needs:
Dental sedation can help you to overcome dental fear and anxiety. Dental phobia and anxiety are common and understandable phenomena. Your dentist’s goal in offering sedation dentistry options is to ensure that those natural phobias and anxieties do not interfere with your receipt of essential and important dental care.
It’ll make treatment physically easier. Patients with acute sensitivity to pain, a particularly sensitive gag reflex or marked nervousness about the sensations associated with treatment often gird or brace themselves in anticipation of pain or discomfort. It can be exhausting and extremely uncomfortable for a patient who is constantly tense to undergo treatment. That tension also makes it much harder for dentists to provide treatment safely, quickly and effectively. Dental sedation can help you to physically relax to make treatment more comfortable for you, and easier and safer for your dentist.
Dental sedation can help in the moment and in the future. The memories of past traumatic dental experiences are often at the root of dental phobia and anxiety. Each stressful appointment tends to compound those past stresses and anxieties to make future appointments even more challenging. Over time, patients who experience dental fear and phobia often find that experience worsens rather than improves due to the accumulation of traumatic memories. Dental sedation helps resolve that fear and anxiety for the purpose of the present dentist’s appointment, but can also help future appointments get easier. It has that effect on future appointments because dental sedation induces a state called anterograde amnesia, through which your brain can not create new unpleasant memories associated with an appointment while under the influence of sedative drugs.
You’ll have to go to fewer dental appointments. Because anxious patients under the influence of sedation are able to remain still and calm for much longer periods than normally, dentists are often able to cluster multiple procedures into a single appointment. This clustering of procedures may reduce the number of appointments you need to attend.
Is sedation dentistry – such as receiving oral sedation near you – right for your needs? Make an appointment with a dentist in Thunder Bay to discuss your personal circumstances and the options available for ensuring you get the treatment you need.