I was resistant to get into Sedation Dentistry. Sedation Dentistry is like a life preserver, you don’t really appreciate it until it saves your life. And for the very fearful, Sedation Dentistry is a life saver. The typical sedation patient takes a pill the night before, then a pill an hour before coming into the office. They are then driven to the office by their designated companion. At the office, I reassess the patient’s degree of sedation and we, the patient and I, determine if more sedation is warranted. If so, we deliver more of the sedative and in a short while we are able to proceed with the dental treatment. The patient is never totally asleep but always comfortable. The patient can answer questions and is aware that we are doing dentistry but truly does not care. The best part is a side effect of the drug that works in our favor: amnesia. This means that the patient will have little or no memory of the appointment.
We recently treated a sedated patient in the office for three hours. At the end of the appointment, the patient’s husband came here to bring her home. As we brought her to her car, literally 30 minutes after we finished treatment, her husband asked her if she remembers anything. Her response, “Nothing!” This is with a patient that was talking to us throughout the appointment and was never unconscious.
When we saw this patient a week later she could not of been happier with her dental sedation experience. This is what it is all about. Taking a patient that would ordinarily be an emotional wreck in the dental office to a relaxed, comforting, non-threatening environment.
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