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Dental Anxiety & Your Oral Health
Dental anxiety can prevent people from getting the proper dental care they need. Over time, this can have a cumulative negative effect on your overall dental health, and can actually result in the need for more frequent, invasive dental procedures down the road.
If you feel hesitant or nervous before a procedure, there are options for you at the dentist's office. Our dentists at Ellerslie Dental Studio are here to offer them to you.
How Dental Sedation Helps
There are two main forms of sedation that most dentists offer:
Oral Sedation
Oral sedation typically comes in pill or liquid form and can be taken anywhere from twenty-four hours to one hour before a dental appointment, depending on your needs and level of anxiety.
One of the benefits of oral sedation is that you can take the medication yourself.
Oral sedation will not render you unconscious, but it will make you feel calm and drowsy. You may even doze off during your appointment. You will still be able to interact with your dentist during the procedure.
Nitrous Oxide Sedation
Nitrous oxide (more commonly known as laughing gas) sedation is a gas that is mixed with oxygen and inhaled through a mask that fits over your nose.
Nitrous oxide will not put you to sleep. You will be aware, and able to respond to comments or questions from your dentist throughout the procedure.
Nitrous oxide typically provides a pleasant feeling of calm and good humour, and one of its primary benefits is that it wears off almost immediately after the mask has been removed.
Preparing for Sedation
Your dentist will give you specific instructions, based on your needs, for how to prepare for your dental sedation appointment, and what to do afterwards.
We advise patients to have a friend or family member drive them to and from the appointment because driving is not advised until after the effects of the sedation have worn off.