Conquering Anxiety with Compassion
Nearly 75% of people have a fear of the dentist ranging from mild to severe. In some cases of severe dental phobia, people avoid their dental visits entirely, putting their teeth and health at risk.
More than 50% of Americans do not have regular dental cleanings and examinations. Many of those patients report hating to have dental work or feel anxiety associated with just being in the dental office.
At Nederland Family Dental, we specialize in treating people who are apprehensive about dentistry. We know that many people have had negative experiences in the past involving a painful procedure. Some people cannot explain their dental fears but still have trouble controlling them.
Our dental team is compassionate and sensitive to your needs. We take our time making sure you feel comfortable before we proceed, and we listen to your concerns. Our team develops relationships with our patients, getting to know them as people to treat them the way we want to be treated.
For patients with moderate to severe dental anxiety, we offer conscious sedation.
What Is Conscious Sedation?
One of the safest and easiest ways to help you relax at your dental appointment is oral conscious sedation. To determine if sedation is right for you, we will complete a full medical history to find any drug interactions or conditions we should be concerned about.
If you are healthy enough, we will prescribe a medication that you should take one hour before your dental appointment. While you are here, we will monitor you constantly, making sure you are completely safe.
One of the benefits of oral conscious sedation is that you can respond to our questions and participate in your appointment without having feelings of anxiety. You may have little to no memory of your procedure. Most of our patients doze off and report feeling completely relaxed, in a dream-like state.
IV Sedation For Dentistry
IV sedation is for more complex dental procedures and we deliver it intravenously. We constantly monitor your vital signs and heart rate throughout your procedure and we're able to adjust the medication as needed to ensure that you are completely relaxed. IV sedation works so well that we have been told that patients feel like they're asleep through their entire procedure.
Our dentists may recommend IV sedation in Nederland for these situations:
- For patients with a severe gag reflex
- For patients with special needs
- For those with a need for multiple, complex treatment procedures they would like to complete during one appointment
- For patients with severe dental phobia or anxiety
The Benefits of Sedation
Sedation has several benefits. The most important benefit is that you can feel anxiety-free while you have your dental work. That means you don’t have to avoid the dentist and risk losing your teeth and damaging your dental health.
Because you will be groggy and disoriented, you will need someone to drive you home from your appointment, but you should feel completely normal and well-rested the next day.
Another benefit of sedation dentistry is that it allows you to have a large amount of work done in one visit. Because you have little awareness of time and you are completely relaxed, we can accomplish multiple procedures per visit.