Is Sedation for Me?

Many dentists offer sedation to help their nervous patients cope with treatment. I look at this as another tool in my box of tricks rather than the ‘only’ way to manage treatment for scaredy cats. Read the summary below to work out what’s best for you

Happy air/ ra sedation

Relative Analgesia uses Nitrous Oxide through a nose piece to help you feel relaxed and more calm. This is NOT heavy sedation and you feel ‘floaty’ and ‘tingly’ so you don’t really care about the treatment you are having. It helps to calm over active gag reflexes as well so its great if that’s one of your worries. The best bit…. you can drive yourself home in under an hour after treatment as you recover very quickly.

iv sedation

Intravenous sedation uses an injection of midazolam into a vein in your arm or hand, hence its not great if you’re scared of needles. You will feel MUCH more ‘out of it’ than with Happy Air but will be out of commission for 24 hours, unable to drive, look after your kids, use tools or cook dinner. You won’t be asleep like a general anaesthetic but you won’t remember much afterwards. Obviously, you will need someone to take you home and look after you.

tlc/ baby steps/ desensitization

Not everyone can be sedated or wants to be. Some people do better when they have more control over their care and know what’s going on. If this is you then getting the dentist to build your plan in small steps, which get increasingly difficult over time can work wonders! Some dentists will offer you a device such as a button or ‘clicker’ which means you can stop treatment when you want, or show you hand signals that will tell the dentist to stop. You don’t need a dentist with special training for this to work, you just need good communication and a solid plan.