Sedation dentistry
Northern Beaches Children’s Dentistry/ Park St Dental Practice in Mona Vale provides pain- free and gentle dental treatments and sedation dentistry for children and adults.
Sedation dentistry (sleep Dentistry) is a term that refers to the use of medications during dental treatment to put patients into a relaxed state, almost like sleep.
Sedation Dentistry is often used during procedures that require an extensive amount of time in the treatment chair. Also, sedation is ideal for patients who exhibit dental phobia and anxiety or have difficulty controlling their movements. It is also very helpful in the treatment of anxious children.
While the term sedation or sleep dentistry implies that patients are unconscious, this is usually not the case. Most forms of sedation dentistry simply alleviate anxiety or send patients to a deep relaxing state, so that little is felt or remembered from the dental procedure.
Depends on the patient’s level of anxiety and preference and practitioner’s diagnosis, some sort of sedation technique can be used for any simple to highly complex procedure.
At Northern Beaches Children’s Dentistry/ Park St Dental Practice in Mona Vale, the patient and parents can choose one of various options of sedation dentistry for the procedures as simple as cleaning to complex surgical treatments.
There are different types of techniques in sedation Dentistry, depending on the complexity of treatment and level of patient’s anxiety, physiological and psychological status. The different sedation techniques are not recommended for use instead of, but in addition to a caring dentist.
The most common techniques in sedation dentistry are:
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Inhalation Sedation
Nitrous oxide gas (also known as “laughing gas”, “happy gas”, “gas and air” or relative analgesia) is used to induce a state of relaxation for a conscious patient. It is a completely safe and highly effective technique in co-operative but anxious patients and can be used for any type of dental procedure: simple or complex. Nitrous oxide can be used safely in children and adults to achieve a pain- free and pleasant experience during a dental treatment. Happy gas is used frequently in the field of sedation dentistry for children and adults and creates a relaxing status.
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Oral Sedatives
Oral sedative medications like anti-anxiety pills or a liquid can be given to a patient the night before a dental visit or 30 – 60 minutes before the dental appointment, depending on the severity of the anxiety and patient’s age.
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Intravavous (IV) Sedation
Sedative medications are administered into the bloodstream and provides the patient with a very deep sedation status. This technique is usually delivered within a special setting in a general dental practice by a visiting sedation specialist. Intravenous sedation is a great technique for the complex surgical treatments or in the patients with a high level of dental phobia and anxiety. Park St Dental Practice is pleased to have one of the most well-known IV sedation in-house. Dr Briggs is our extremely amazing visiting IV sedationist.
At Northern Beaches Children’s Dentistry and Park St Dental Practice, we are fully equipped and licensed to provide our patients with all forms of sedation techniques depending on the complexity of treatment, patient’s age, need and preference, their level of anxiety and dental practitioner’s diagnosis.
If you feel that our right, caring and extremely gentle dentists and their amazing psychological and behavioural management techniques alone will not do the trick for your child, one of the above sedation techniques can be utilised.
Northern Beaches Chilren’s Dentistry/ Park St Dental Practice offers pain-free gentle children dental treatments and sedation dentistry( sleep Dentistry) for anxious children and adults. Book online or call us on 02 9997 5770 to talk with one of our lovely staff.