Sit Back and Relax with Sleep Dentistry

Some people cannot help but feel an amount of anxiety when going to the dentist. This is true for every race and age, and for whatever kind of procedure. 9% - 15% of Americans experience dental anxiety. This psychological condition can be attributed to many things: negative past experiences, fear of pain, embarrassment, and feelings of loss of control. And according to studies, people with dental anxiety are most likely to lose teeth earlier and to develop periodontal diseases.

As a response to this issue, dentists have developed the use of pharmacological agents to calm and relax their patients before and during a procedure. This is more commonly known as Sedation Dentistry or Sleep Dentistry.

Sedation dentistry concerns the use of certain drugs or sedatives that depress the central nervous system, specifically areas of which concerns consciousness and awareness. There are three degrees of sedation depending on the level of need for it: minimal, moderate and deep.

Minimal sedation reduces a patient’s anxiety but retains his responses to verbal and physical stimulation. Commonly used for short, simple procedures, this mainly calms and relaxes the patient. Moderate sedation causes a patient to feel more relaxed and calm while still being able to respond to more focused forms of stimulations. Deep sedation is what a Las Vegas sedation dentist would use to make a patient fall asleep for complex procedures like a root canal or dental implant placement.

With sleep or sedation dentistry, a Las Vegas sedation dentistwould be able to perform otherwise anxiety-causing procedures to an otherwise anxious patient. A typical sedation dentist would have at least three techniques for sedating his patients: oral sedation, sedation through the nasal cavity with the use of gas and intravenous sedation. Sedation dentistry, when done gently and correctly, can allow a dental phobic patient to experience a relaxing, pain- and stress-free visit to the dentist.

While this may sound easy, dentists need special training to perform sedation dentistry. A typical Las Vegas sedation dentist would have extensive training and accreditation. Be sure to find out if your dentist is accredited to use sedatives to treat patients.