Dental Cosmetic Surgery

If you’re tense or anxious every time you have a dental appointment, you should tell your dentist about it immediately. It is paramount to share your situation with your dentist so that the appropriate treatment plan will be used to address your needs. Today, there are new technologies in dentistry that will alleviate such anxieties and make every dental visit comfortable.

The source of dental anxiety varies in each individual. It could stem from painful dental procedures in the past, existing behavioral or medical problems and fear of pain, in general. There are medications available to make every dental visit as comfortable and pain-free as possible. Also, there are behavior modification strategies to put you in a relaxed state. Talking to your dentist will determine the best approach for your case.

Different types of medications and methodologies are used to relieve anxiety during dental treatment. Here are the different techniques employed by dentists to help mitigate anxiety and the pain during dental procedures.

• Analgesics

Analgesics are commonly used to relieve tooth pain after a dental treatment. These include non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drugs such as Ibuprofen, aspirin and acetaminophen. For more severe pain, narcotic analgesics like codeine are administered.

• Local anesthesia

There are two kinds of local anesthesia: topical and injectable. Topical anesthetics are applied on the mouth tissues to reduce pain on the surface level. This is also utilized to prepare the area for injectable local anesthetics.

Injectable local anesthetics are administered to prevent pain in a specific area on the mouth during treatment. It causes temporary numbness in the mouth tissues by blocking the nerves responsible for sensing pain. Injectable anesthetics are generally administered in dental procedures like extraction, dental filling and preparing the teeth for crown replacement.

• Sedation and sleep dentistry

Sedatives such as nitrous oxide act as anti-anxiety agents to put the patient in a more relaxed state during dental visits. The complexity of the patient’s case determines whether these sedatives shall be administered before, during or after the dental procedure. The patient achieves a relaxed state but can respond to verbal cues. Certain procedures require general anesthesia or deep sedation as in the case of patients who suffer from severe anxiety, young children and people who have medical conditions such as those who are unable to control their movements. Deep sedation induces a loss of consciousness in order to minimize pain and anxiety while general anesthesia causes temporary loss of consciousness.

It is important to understand the risks and your options in treating anxiety and pain during dental procedures. Your dentist is in the best position to educate you on oral health and dental concerns in regards to anxiety and fear. Working with your dentist to address these issues early on will ensure that your dental visit and treatments will be safe, painless and comfortable as possible.

Contact our Ft. Lauderdale dentists at sleepdentists.com for more information about reducing and completely eliminating anxiety during dental visits.

Moderate to complex dental procedures utilize some form of sedation medication to carry out the treatment. In each case, the patient’s dental profile and overall health are considered in determining the treatment plan and the level of sedation to be administered. As no two cases are entirely alike, the treating dentist formulate each dental procedure to custom-fit the needs the patient.

If one patient breezed through dental extraction by administering laughing gas and local anesthesia, this doesn’t mean that the same type of sedation applies to other patients requiring the same dental procedure. Simply put, in sedation dentistry, each case is treated independently of other cases, regardless of the similarity of the dental treatment and the patient’s profile. Suffice to say, there is no cookie cutter approach in sedation dentistry.

The following is an overview of some of the frequently asked questions in regards to procedures requiring sedation:

Why is there a need to put people to sleep during dental treatment?

Patients are put to sleep during dental procedures to address special concerns. In the case of people who experience mild to high levels of anxiety during treatment, sedation medication or putting them in a state of deep sleep will help them relax and avoid the pain and discomfort of dental treatment. This procedure is also administered in the case of patients who have special needs and for people who need extensive work done.

What are the types of anesthesia used during the procedure?

The type of anesthesia depends on the dental work to be performed. General anesthesia, nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or a combination of these sedative drugs are administered.

What is the difference between sedation and sleep dentistry?

Sleep and sedation dentistry are often mistaken as one procedure especially in dental advertising but these two are entirely different from one another. Although both are forms of sedation, they employ different dental practices altogether. Sedation dentistry uses medications that will put the patient in a relaxed state thereby reducing the levels of anxiety during the procedure. The patient can respond to verbal commands and breathe on their own even though they are in a sedated state. They will have little memory of the treatment.

On the other hand, sleep dentistry is a method wherein the patient will be put in a state of complete sleep. He will have no recollection of the dental work performed on him.

If the dental procedure requires administration of general anesthesia, how long will it take before one can resume to normal activities?

The patients are advised to rest on the first day of the treatment. Generally, most patients return to their normal activities on the second day.

Shouldn’t dental procedures requiring anesthesia be performed in a hospital setting?

If the dental office is not equipped with the right tools to perform sleep dentistry, the procedure is done in a medical hospital. Dental offices with a team of licensed sleep dentists and fully licensed facilities and staff can carry out the dental procedure in their respective offices.

If you want to learn more about sedation and sleep dentistry, contact our Ft Lauderdale dentists at sleepdentists.com.