Our Woodbridge, VA area patients that struggle with severe fears and anxieties about visiting the dentist can relax knowing that here at Woodbridge Comfort Dental Care, we are proud to offer various sedation dentistry techniques. Sedation dentistry comes in varying forms and helps to reach different levels of consciousness or sedation depending on the patient and the procedure.
Patients with fears strong enough to prevent them from even visiting the dentist in the first place can greatly benefit from sedation dentistry.
Sedation dentistry is also helpful for patients who are unable to relax and sit still in the dentist’s chair and patients with an extremely low threshold for pain.
If you have very sensitive teeth or a weak gag reflex, sedation dentistry can control these as well.
Additionally, for patients who come in for a lot of work in one single appointment, sedation dentistry is used to put them at ease for an extended period.
We even use sedation dentistry with our young patients, as it’s common for kids to be unable to cooperate or sit still.
Sedation can be given in various ways. These are the four main kinds we use at Woodbridge Comfort Dental Care—inhaled, oral, intravenous, and general anesthesia.
Colloquially known as laughing gas, inhaled sedation is given to the patient with an oxygen mask. This is the most minimal level of sedation available, and the patient stays awake. It wears off fast, and the patient is permitted to drive themselves home if necessary.
For minimal to moderate levels of sedation, a pill can be taken approximately one hour prior to the start of the procedure to help the patient relax. The patient stays awake but may feel so relaxed that they fall asleep during the procedure.
Intravenous sedation is administered directly into the veins, and the body reacts very quickly to it. IV sedation allows your dentist to easily control how much sedation you are receiving.
In order to put the patient to sleep and achieve a fully unconscious state, special medications that are highly controlled are given intravenously.