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What Is Sedation Dentistry and Why Is It Useful?

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Did you know there is an entire branch of dentistry dedicated to sedation? Many individuals suffer from what is known as dental anxiety and tend to get overly stressed or anxious even for the smallest of dental treatments, like routine check-ups. However, with various forms of sedation, you can be relaxed and given the treatment your smile desires. For more information about sedation dentistry, consider the following:

– The most abundantly used gas for inhaled sedatives is laughing gas, which is a combination of oxygen and nitrous oxide.
– Intravenous sedatives are injections that go immediately into a patient’s bloodstream. Intravenous sedatives are fast-acting and can often deliver the fastest results, allowing them to be used very close to the dental procedure, with minimal wait time.
– Gas sedatives are gases designed to be breathed in by a patient to help them relax for dental procedures.
– Deep sedatives are designed for exhaustive dental services that require the patient to be unconscious. Deep sedatives such as anesthesia are enormously powerful and will put a patient into a deep sleep from which they will not awake until the sedative has worn off.
– The dosage can be adjusted with oral sedatives, but they often do not kick in for up to an hour after ingesting.
– Oral sedatives are pills designed to be manually swallowed by a patient to help them stay calm.

If you would like to schedule an appointment with Algiers Dental Associates to see if you are a candidate for dental sedation, please call Dr. John Hobgood and the rest of our team at our dentist office in New Orleans, Louisiana at 504-361-3277. We want to ensure your teeth remain clean for a lifetime to come.