For some people, thoughts of visiting the dentist are filled with anxiety. Perhaps you’ve had a negative dental experience, a previous trauma or maybe you have an anxiety condition. Either way, at Oxford Street Dental, we take your anxiety seriously. And accordingly, we treat it seriously, offering you a range of options, from oral medication to IV sedation, to put you at ease.
Your past experiences, objectives and preferences will determine the type of sedation you choose. For example, some people are highly anxious and need appropriate oral medication to put them at ease during their dental procedure, even if it’s short, while others may not suffer anxiety, but opt for sleep dentistry options (e.g. IV sedation) as they have a large amount of dental work to endure and would simply prefer to be asleep at the time!
This dental information has been medically reviewed by Australian dental surgeon Dr Aran Moorthy, BDS. Dr Moorthy has a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from the University of Adelaide. Read more about Dr Moorthy here >
What is sedation or sleep dentistry?
Sleep dentistry is where you are induced into a deep sleep so that you are unaware of the procedure and afterwards, won’t remember a thing. Your procedure will be painless, and you’ll be free from anxiety. Sedation usually involves oral medication, where you will remain awake, but more relaxed.
In our comfortable, relaxing environment, you can drift quietly away while having dental treatment, completely unaware of the procedure. And afterwards, you won’t remember a thing.
Benefits
Sleep dentistry offers many advantages:
- Provides a far more relaxing, comfortable experience
- Eliminate problems for those with strong gag reflexes
- Greatly relieves patients with anxiety or phobias
- Saves time – patients with extended, difficult procedures can receive more treatment while asleep. This saves them a considerable amount of time and expense by eliminating repeat appointments
Types of sedation
The two types of sedation we offer are oral sedation or IV sedation, also known as twilight sedation or intravenous sedation dentistry. As the name suggests, oral sedation involves giving you pharmaceutical medication in tablet form.
Depending on the medication given, you may be asked to turn up earlier than your appointment time so that you will feel relaxed in time for your appointment. With IV sedation, we bring in a visiting anaesthetist for your procedure.