Why Sedation is Important for Overcoming Dental Anxiety

If you feel anxiety when you visit the dentist, you’re not alone: over 50% of the adult population in America feel some form of anxiety when they visit a dentist or consider getting dental care. Whether it’s concern over the costs, or just the general feeling of anxiety that comes from perceptions of pain and dental treatment, there are few people who aren’t nervous about getting the services that they genuinely need.

With sedation options and pain management, as well as other environmental cues that can help to reduce stress, there are plenty of ways that dentists in the modern health industry help to defuse that anxiety, and get patients coming back for return visits because they feel comfortable with their treatment. Here’s how it works.

IV Sedation

It is a scarce service in a field of a lot of dentists claiming they do sedation dentistry. This is the real deal. It works for folks that have had less than satisfying results with other so called sedation dentistry using pills or laughing gas. Lifesmiles and Dr Mitchmore are one of the small number in dentists in the country (not just the area) that is certified and licensed for this more profound and predictable sedation technique. The real beauty of IV Sedation is that it has an incredible fast onset of a couple of minutes compared to over an hour with the lesser effective pills. It can also be designed to wear off quickly or slowly depending on the situation and results wanted. That rapid result allows Dr Mitchmore to tailor just the right dosage to your need instead of guessing the optimal dosage with pills which take so much longer to take effect and can keep a person sedated longer than they may want. IV sedation helps to deliver controlled amounts of sedatives to the patient, to put them in a more relaxed state.

• Monitoring is important with sedation. When IV sedation is used, LifeSmiles will ensure that your heart rate, pulse, oxygen levels, and other vital signs are all taken into account before sedation is increased, or even applied in the first place. This helps to give you a more professional experience with your pain and stress management overall, and it means optimal treatment for patients in many different age ranges and levels of physical health.
   
  The reason for monitoring is not for a more professional experience, it is for our overriding concern for your safety.
• Comfort As mentioned, creating a stress-free environment is one way to make sure that patients are comfortable during a procedure, but there’s also the fact that your comfort levels are enhanced through the IV therapy itself. Sedation therapy is perfect for people who feel high amounts of anxiety, or who have long procedures performed.

LifeSmiles is one of the very few dentists in the area to offer IV sedation, and we’ve found that our patients almost always prefer the experience over other solutions like nitrous oxide or oral medication. Not only will you be able to achieve pain management throughout the procedure, but you can also make the entire procedure fly by in seemingly no time at all. All of this takes place under the supervision of highly trained and attentive personnel who are there to ensure you have a safe, relaxing experience at our practice.