Sedation Dentistry for Anxious Patients: How It Can Alleviate Your Dental Fears

This is one reason that it is helpful to address a fear of the dentist quickly. If you find yourself getting nervous about a checkup or avoiding it altogether, we can help. There are lots of methods available that will help you to tackle your fear of the dentist and ensure it doesn’t get in the way of your oral health.

Sedation dentistry is one option that is growing in popularity. This involves using an oral pill to help you to feel more relaxed during your dental visit. In this guide, we’ll look at the role of sedation dentistry in the modern dental practice and how you could use this to overcome your phobia.

What causes fear of the dentist?

There are many reasons that you might be afraid of the dentist. It can happen at any age, and individuals don’t always know the cause of the problem. Common issues include:

• A bad past experience with the dentist

• Fear of being out of control

• Fear of judgement

• Trauma to the face that results in a fear of dental pain

• Bad memories of the dentist from childhood

• General anxiety in other areas of your life

If any of these sound like you, you may find that you are reluctant to seek out dental treatment. While skipping one dental checkup might not be the end of the world, avoiding the dentist altogether will be very damaging to your oral health. And when you eventually do need to visit the dentist, it’s likely that the work required will be more extensive.

What is the best way forward for nervous patients?

If you’re scared of the dentist or have a history of dental phobia, there are steps you can take to overcome this.

Some people are able to talk themselves into a dental visit by simply rationalising the experience. By reminding themselves that there is nothing to fear and that their dentist wants to help them, they can overcome their phobia and realise that a visit to the dentist is in their best interests.

It’s also possible to work with your dentist to help make the dental experience less daunting. This will involve getting to the bottom of your phobia and then working together to determine how best to manage this.

If you’re afraid of losing control, it might be helpful for your dentist to talk to you and tell you what is going on. If you’re afraid of needles, you can ask your dentist to distract you before doing any procedures that involve needles.

Another way to overcome your fear of the dentist – or to at least get through longer procedures that you need – is to use oral conscious sedation.

Introducing sedation dentistry

Sedation dentistry is growing in popularity as a way to deal with phobias and make dental work possible. It is also known as oral conscious sedation, or OCS. The good news is that there are no needles required with OCS.

This type of sedation is administered orally with a pill that you swallow around 1-2 hours before your appointment. You can do this at home if it helps you to relax on your way to the dentist.

You will not be put to sleep, but you will feel very relaxed and sleepy. Some patients drift into a twilight state while they are under this type of sedation, but they can easily be woken with a tap on the arm and they are fully able to communicate.

Oral conscious sedation will help you to relax and will remove the panicky feeling that many people experience when they are afraid of the dentist. It’s also unlikely that you’ll remember the small details of your appointment, so it appears to pass by much more quickly.

Why you aren’t put to sleep during dentistry

We don’t put patients to sleep for dental procedures because this is much more risky and requires specialist equipment and staff to monitor the patient. It isn’t necessary to put patients to sleep and could be dangerous for their health.

If you require dental surgery and this is due to take place at a hospital, this is likely to be completed under general anaesthetic. However, this isn’t the same as procedures completed in the dental practice and it likely won’t help you to overcome your anxiety surrounding dental procedures.

Things to consider before choosing sedation

If you’re interested in dental sedation, there are a few things to consider. First, decide if this is what you really need to help get over your fear of the dentist. It’s unlikely to be offered for something as simple as a checkup, so you may still need to do the work to overcome your fears.

You’ll also need to think about the additional time it will take to recover from your dental procedure. You won’t be able to go back to work and will likely feel like going to bed to sleep off the sedation.

You will also need someone to accompany you after your appointment to take you home and make sure you are safe. You cannot drive while on oral conscious sedation, so someone will need to make sure you get home safely. If you choose to take your pill before your appointment at home, you’ll also need someone to take you to the dentist.

Final thoughts on sedation dentistry

It might not be right for every patient and every appointment, but it could help very nervous patients to overcome their fear and relax during longer procedures. If you’re nervous about your upcoming dental procedure and want to know how we can make the procedure less daunting, get in touch with our team today. We’d be happy to talk you through the process.