Feeling pain is the greatest fear for the dental patient. Pain during dental treatment is controlled through local anesthesia. When a patient is profoundly numb and free of pain, anxiety generally subsides. To achieve this, we use a variety of local anesthetic solutions.

Nitrous Oxide, also known as laughing gas, is an ideal anti-anxiety method for dental treatment. It is fast acting, titratable (the amount you receive is easily and instantaneously adjustable), and extremely safe. Nitrous Oxide starts working in a matter of seconds and once finished is expelled through normal breathing in a matter of minutes. This leaves a patient safe to drive home right after the appointment with no lasting side effects. We use Nitrous Oxide on any anxious patient that requests it, on most children.

When laughing gas is not enough for the patient or the treatment, we can go a step further with sedation. With sedation, we can comfortably do complex procedures for our patients and do routine dental care anxiety-free for our phobic patients. Most of our sedation patients sleep through their procedures or are extremely relaxed. Most don’t remember the procedure at all the day after… if they do, it was fuzzy like it was a dream.

With sedation dentistry, medications are used to help patients stay relaxed throughout dental procedures. Sedation can also help to prevent pain and to reduce the ability to remember the procedure when it’s completed. However, many patients confuse IV sedation dentistry with general anesthesia, and the two have some big differences. Here’s a closer look at both options, some of the pros and cons they have to offer, and a look at when they are appropriate.