What Makes Our Practice Pain-Free
IF THE THOUGHT of going to the dentist makes you extremely nervous or you have difficulty tolerating dental treatment, we can help! For many people, fear of dentists (dentophobia) is so intense that it prevents them from getting the treatment they teeth need. Regrettably, this often originates with previous bad experiences with dental treatment.
Your Comfort Is Our Priority
One of our top priorities is to ensure your comfort during treatment, including making your experience as pain-free as possible. The first step is to acknowledge and address the extent of your dental anxiety so that we can develop a plan that will ensure comfortable treatment and the best outcome. One possibility is sedation or general anesthesia. Other limitations aside from dental anxiety might require sedation, such as a severe gag reflex, limited opening, and mental or physical limitations.
Types of Sedation
We offer a few different levels of sedation to ensure your pain-free experience. The mildest is an oral anxiolytic (similar to Valium), prescribed before your appointment. This medication will help you relax and feel comfortable before you come to the office, but you will need someone to drive you to and from your appointment and stay with you until the effects wear off.
Next is nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, which works very quickly to help you relax and wears off quickly enough after your appointment that you can drive yourself home.
The third possibility is oral conscious sedation, which will give you a deeper, pain-free experience during your procedure. As with anxiolytics, you will need a trustworthy person to serve as your escort before and after surgery.
Local anesthesia is a common way to eliminate pain during a dental procedure. The effects are limited to the area around the treatment site and can last up to a few hours afterward.
Have You Been Putting Off Needed Treatment?
If dental anxiety or fear of painful treatment has been stopping you from getting an important dental procedure done, please get in touch. We can answer any questions you have about the sedation options we offer and make a plan together for your treatment. We look forward to seeing you!