Countless adults experience dental fear and anxiety that keeps them from visiting the dentist until they’re in pain or an accident occurs that leaves a tooth broken or knocked-out. Unfortunately, without routine professional dental care, like checkups and cleanings, this can leave your mouth vulnerable to progressing oral health problems, like oral cancer, gum disease, and tooth infections. You shouldn’t have to have to endure heart-racing anxiety and debilitating fear to look after your health. Read on to learn whether nitrous oxide, also known as laughing gas, or oral conscious sedation can make your next visit more relaxing and manageable.
Who is a Good Candidate for Dental Sedation?
While dental sedation is great for patients who experience fear or anxiety at the thought of visiting the dentist, it’s also great for patients who:
- Have a sensitive gag reflex that makes receiving cleanings or treatments uncomfortable.
- Have a physical disability that makes it difficult to sit through dental visits.
- Are receiving more extensive or complex treatment.
- Are receiving multiple dental procedures in a single visit.
The best way to learn whether nitrous oxide or oral conscious sedation can help make your next visit to your dental office easier and less stressful is to consult with your dentist in Ponte Vedra Beach.
How Does Nitrous Oxide vs. Oral Conscious Sedation Work?
Unlike oral conscious sedation, which is taken prior to your appointment in the form of a single prescription pill, nitrous oxide sedation is administered in-office. Your dental team will help you get comfortable in the treatment chair and place a small nose mask onto your face that will allow you to breathe in a colorless, odorless mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen. Within less than a minute, you’ll feel the full calming effects of the sedation.
Oral conscious sedation is typically a medication in the diazepam family, like Halcion or Valium. Before your appointment, you’ll pick up the prescription and take it, allowing the full relaxing effects to kick-in before you arrive to your dental office.
What Happens After Oral Conscious & Nitrous Oxide Sedation?
One of the biggest differences between oral conscious and nitrous oxide sedation is how long the effects linger. Halcion, Valium, and other medications used for oral conscious sedation have effects that can linger up to eight hours. Because of this, many dentists recommend taking the rest of the day off of work, and it’ll be important for you to have a trusted friend or family member scheduled to pick you up from and drop you off at your appointment.
On the other hand, nitrous oxide sedation is fast-acting, and the effects are equally as fast to dissipate. At the end of your cleaning or procedure, the dentist will have you breathe in pure oxygen to help flush the effects from your system. When you’re ready to leave the office, you can go on about the rest of your day as you normally would with little to no side effects.
Ultimately, the choice of whether to receive nitrous oxide or oral conscious sedation in Ponte Vedra is up to you and your sedation dentist. After reviewing your medical history and discussing why you need sedation, they’ll be able to go over all of your options in greater detail with you.
About the Practice
At Ponte Vedra Complete Dentistry, our team is led by Dr. Townsend and Dr. Harth, two highly-trained, compassionate dental experts with years of experience under their belts. Combined, they have completed thousands of hours of continuing education and are dedicated to providing gentle and comfortable dentistry that helps ease their patients’ fears and anxiety. To learn whether you’re a good candidate for dental sedation, visit Ponte Vedra Complete Dentistry’s website or call 904-285-7711.