Dental anxiety is the stress you manifest when visiting a dental clinic. It is responsible for making people skip dental appointments, leading to dental health conditions. People who experience dental anxiety get triggers from associating dental visits with drills, needles, and the like.
Severe dental anxiety results in irrational fear, leading to dental phobia. It pushes you to do everything to avoid visiting your dentist. Your fear can increase with a post-traumatic disorder or a generalized anxiety disorder. Neck or head trauma also increases your risk of experiencing dental anxiety, as does depression or bipolar disorder.
Sedation dentistry involves using sedatives to help patients with dental anxiety relax during their treatment at the dentist’s office. Your dentist may use it if they notice you have the following dental anxiety symptoms:
Known as laughing gas or happy gas, nitrous oxide helps you relax as you receive your dental treatment. Your dentist will fit a mask over your face to let you breathe in nitrous oxide and oxygen. You will begin feeling the effect after a few minutes, and it will start wearing off quickly.
You will remain relaxed and awake throughout the treatment. The sensation from the nitrous oxide is pleasing, and you may not remember everything about your procedure at your dentist.
Your dentist may prescribe an oral medication to relieve your anxiety. You will need to take a single dose one hour before your dental appointment. Take this type of sedation only if your dentist advises so.
It is essential to have a friend or family member accompany you. You will not manage to drive yourself back home under the influence of the medication.
Your dentist will give you this type of sedation through drip by placing it into a vein of your hand or arm. A dental sedationist with advanced training can handle intravenous (IV) sedation. You may receive it in a hospital or dental practice with advanced equipment.
IV sedation will make you relax, and you are likely to fall into a light sleep but wake up with verbal prompts. You may experience nausea and drowsiness after your treatment. It is essential to get someone to drive you back home after getting this type of sedation.
You can only receive this type of sedation in a hospital setting with an anesthetist and your dentist present. General anesthesia will cause you to be asleep throughout your dental procedure. You may experience nausea.
You will wake up when the sedation wears off, but you will remain groggy for a while. It is advisable to have someone drive you back home to ensure you arrive safely. Your recovery time may also be longer than the other types of sedation.
For more about sedation dentistry, call Implant Dentistry Periodontics & Facial Rejuvenation at one of our offices in Tampa or Wesley Chapel, Florida. For Tampa call (813) 517-0100 or for Wesley Chapel call (813) 973-7770.
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