Sedation Dentistry In Bellevue – Fast, Painless Relief For Dental Patients

Sedation dentistry in Bellevue is used to provide a painless and relaxing experience to patients each time a visit to a dentist is made. It comes as no surprise that most people are often scared of having their teeth checked or removed.

They begin to tremble the moment the dentist requests them to open their mouth to enable him/her to perform a routine check, even for cavities! This condition, commonly known as dental phobia, is the account for a large number of people’s reluctance to make the highly advised regular visit to the dentist for a simple checkup, tooth filling, tooth cleaning (removal of plaque and gingivitis), and much more.

It is as a result of this that Bellevue sedation dentistry is aimed at providing the patients with an anxiety-free atmosphere whenever a visit to the dentist is made. Through sedation, the patient gets to relax and drifts off to a quiet and peaceful state, giving the dentist the opportunity to perform a thorough check-up of the teeth, clean and remove if necessary; free from the patient’s constant complains of pain and discomfort.

The most commonly used sedatives include nitrous oxide, anti-anxiety pills, tranquilizers, and anti-depressants.

These sedatives can be administered in a number of ways the most common being through the veins (intravenously) or orally (through the mouth). When administered through the veins, sedation works best if administered by the dentist or his/her assistant as they are well aware of the vein the sedative needs to pass through in order to give the patient fast relief.

Improvement in medicine has created new ways in which the patient can take the sedative for instance, in order not to escalate the patient’s fear of surgical instruments such as needles; sedatives such as nitrous oxide can simply be inhaled by the patient for instant relaxation.

Once ready, the dentist places a small gas mask over the patient’s nose enabling him/her to inhale the gas immediately drifting off to a relaxed state. Other dentists place strips of cotton containing the gas over the patient’s nose as opposed to using the gas mask. The effect is the same; the patient immediately drifts off giving the dentist the opportunity to work his/her magic.

Benefits of sedation

The most obvious benefit is the total lack of pain experienced during the procedure. More often than not, the dentist may require to numb the area around which he/she intends to work on. To do this, the dental professional needs to inject an anesthetic so as to block the nerves associated with sensing pain and discomfort around the affected teeth area.

To do this, he/she needs to inject a needle full of anesthetic directly into the nerves so it helps when the patient is fast asleep.

Another benefit is that the entire procedure once complete will seem to have taken no more than twenty minutes of the patient’s time while in reality, it may have lasted a few hours depending on the severity. This is largely possible due to the patient’s relaxed state as a result of the sedatives. Imagine the pain that would be experienced if the patient was to wake up in the middle of the procedure!

By eradicating all the anxiety of the patient, sedation dentistry offers the patient an opportunity to leave with a healthy smile awaiting his/her next checkup. It provides a solution to a former toothache that would have only been made worse if the tooth needs to be removed while the patient was fully aware.

Cons of sedation dentistry

Patients suffering from heart problems or generally ill-patients are not good candidates for the procedure because the sedatives may increase the heart rate, cause difficulties in breathing and this could result in heart failure and strokes.