zaterdag 18 februari 2012

Knowing Sedation Dentistry

By Andrea Percontino


For those people who get experience an attack of nerves or tension when they have to visit the dentist, one of experience of sedation dentistry might be the best thing that has happened to them. For the patient and the dentist, sedation dentistry makes a dental exam a much faster and easier process overall. Even longer dental exams become a breeze after the patient is given a small medical dose of a sedative, even if the exam takes a long time. When it comes to surgery, there are few people who can make it through the procedure without feeling some form of nerves. When you're scheduled to have a long exam or a surgery, sedation dentistry can make the whole process much easier to handle.

Sedation dentistry, unlike the common held notion, is not a procedure that serves as an anesthetic for the patient. This assumption is completely false, however. Under this form of sedation, the patient is put in more of a trance-like state, where they cannot feel any pain from what the dentist is doing. Despite the sedation, though, the patient is still able to react to and respond to any inquiries from the dentist.

Understanding the Procedure

The pharmaceutical drugs used in sedation dentistry are primarily a pain reducing mechanism. These pain relievers are designed such that they will work only on the pain sensors related to nerves located in the mouth, yet they leave the rest of the body alone.

Where dentists of the past had to be able to put a patient at ease using only a smile and a gentle voice, dentists today (while still being very nice and professional) are given the added benefit of sedation to put their patients entirely at ease. Valium and Halcion are some of the main drugs that are given orally to patients who will be having sedative dentistry practiced on them. For many patients, using Halcion and Valium has been able to reduce stress as a result of a dental exam or surgery. When a patient is expected to be much more stressed than usual, a dentist may choose to procure some laughing gas for a brief period of time. Because nitrous oxide (laughing gas) works through inhalation, it is one of the fastest ways to quickly get an anxious patient under control. For even more invasive surgeries or other procedures, one may turn to an I.V. to inject a quick-acting and strong sedative.

The most important part of finding a good sedation dentist is to make sure they know what they are doing when they give you a sedative. If a dentist makes a mistake when giving a patient a sedative drug, the patient could be at serious risk for harm. Certain patients, including the elderly and the disabled, frequently need even more attention or sedation than most, and you should find the properly trained professional for this. The success of gentle sedation dentistry has made it so patients are more likely to return to a dentist again and again, thus creating a situation where dental health is improved forever.




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