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“Try to relax. It won’t be that bad.”
Those words don’t always work as well as the person saying them would like, especially if the person hearing those words is suffering from dental anxiety.
We treat patients with some degree of dental anxiety nearly every day our dentist offices in Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, and Cary. For some, the friendliness of our staff and the comfort options that we provide are enough to help them get through their routine cleanings and examinations.
We also know that some patients will need a little more help. That’s why we offer sedation dentistry at each Sunrise Dental office in The Triangle.
Dental sedation may be just what you need to make your oral care easier to handle.
Benefits Of Sedation Dentistry
Dental sedation has been used for more than 170 years and our understanding of how to use it has increased with time and research.
Nevertheless, we don’t want you to see dental sedation as a be all and end all option. We’ve had patients who wanted sedation dentistry when they first started visiting us but can now sit through a full cleaning and examination without any problems.
Now, this did not happen overnight. It takes time and patience to overcome dental anxiety, and different people are going to need to work through it in their own way. Even if you never completely overcome your anxiety, you’ll always know that dental sedation is an option at Sunrise Dental.
Learning to manage dental anxiety may require attacking this issue in multiple ways. Dental Fear Central (a website created by people with dental anxiety for people with dental anxiety) notes three approaches that can help.
Good communication is the foundation of addressing dental anxiety. This is a two-way street.
Our dentists want to explain what we are doing in a way that helps you understand both what we will be doing and why we do those things.
We also want to listen to yo. We want to understand what factors contribute to your dental anxiety. This can help us developing a treatment plan that can make dental care easier on you.
A psychological approach depends on the environment at the dentist office. Is the staff caring and concerned, or are they clinical and detached? We prefer to hire people who care about our patients at Sunrise Dental.
This also may include options like longer appointments and respecting your privacy. Both of these are important to our staff.
The third approach is dental sedation. Whether you choose nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or oral conscious sedation, we have a way to help you.
Both of these have analgesic benefits, so you won’t feel any pain during your procedure. Both induce a state of relaxation, so you can remain calm while you are receiving your care.
Both will prevent you from gagging, and more than likely, you won’t remember much, if anything, about your treatment.
Now, let’s discuss the ways these two sedation options are different.
Nitrous oxide
When we said sedation dentistry went back 170 years, this is what we meant.
The effects of nitrous oxide have been known since the late 1700s, but doctors and dentists did not start researching its treatment benefits for several years. It wasn’t until decades later than nitrous oxide gained wide acceptance.
Today, we find that nitrous oxide is one of the simplest ways to induce a state of calm for our anxious patients.
By placing a mask over your nose, you are able to inhale that gas. As you do so, you will start to relax as you feel its effects.
You will remain relaxed as long as you are breathing the gas, and this will allow your dentist or hygienist to complete your treatment. To conclude, we only need to turn the gas off. Then, you can breathe out anything left in your system and return to feeling like yourself.
Oral Sedation
Oral conscious sedation is a more powerful form of sedation dentistry. You take anti-anxiety medication prior to your procedure.
By the time we are ready to start, you will be under the effects of the medicine. This could make you feel drowsy and you may fall asleep. In either case, you won’t feel anything and you won’t remember more than bits and pieces of your treatment.
In the end, you will need someone to drive you home, however. The effects of oral conscious sedation can last for hours after your treatment is over.
Find What Works For You
At Sunrise Dental, our dentists want every patient who visits our offices to feel comfortable. It doesn’t matter if you visit our Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, or Cary locations, we will try to find a treatment option that helps you address your concerns.
To make your appointment, simply call one of our offices or use our online form.