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Sedation Dentist | Denton, TX
Levels of Sedation Dentistry
There are various levels of sedation offered to patients with an unhealthy fear of the dentist. It was once referred to as “sleep dentistry” but this is not exactly accurate since you were still awake during the treatment, so a better name was sourced.
With sedation dentistry, a medicated sedation technique is adopted to achieve one of four levels:
- Minimal – You are relaxed but still awake.
- Moderate – You probably won’t remember much of the treatment, and there will most definitely be slurring your words.
- Deep – You are basically unconscious, but can still be easily awakened if necessary.
- General Anesthesia – You are “knocked out” so to speak; you will be asleep/unconscious.
A number of medications can be used within sedation dentistry. Nitrous oxide is typically used for minimal sedation, oral pills from the same family as Valium for moderate sedation, an I.V. sedative is typically injected directly into your veins for deep sedation, and deep sedation that you would normally expect from a general.
For those of you that are still panicking about the procedure – a local anesthetic is still given alongside sedation techniques to ensure that the whole treatment is completely pain free.
It’s not just fear that sedation dentistry can be good for, however. It has proved to be a very successful form of treatment for patients that have a very strong gag reflex or very sensitive teeth, low pain thresholds, larger and more prolific amounts of dental work required or even severe pain.
Children are often treated with a form of sedation dentistry because they seem to hate the dentist even more than their parents! However, those dental practices that offer moderate and above levels of sedation dentistry must have taken part in a particular accreditation (CODA) to be able to perform the procedures and administer the necessary drugs.