Can Kids Undergo Sedation For Dental Work?
Everybody desires a healthy and beautiful smile, and for a good reason: your teeth affect how you look and how others view you. Your teeth help you eat the food that nourishes your physical body and impact your smile and facial appearance. Beautiful teeth also boost self-confidence.
Unfortunately, cavities and other dental conditions come in the way of beautiful smiles, necessitating dentistry options that can be painful. The pain associated with dental work induces a genuine fear of dentists among some people, to the extent of avoiding dental visits even when needed.
Dental practitioners, therefore, use sedation techniques to keep their patients calm and comfortable during treatment. Sedation is especially critical for kids and adult patients with dental anxiety and phobia.
Sedation Dentistry
Several categories of sedation dentistry are available, including complete anesthesia and mild anxiety treatments. However, the most common ones for dental work are nitrous oxide, known as laughing gas, oral conscious sedation, and intravenous (IV) sedation. These three types of sedation are used differently, depending on factors like a patient's medical history and the dental treatment plan.
While sedation is essential for pain-free dental procedures, specific categories of sedation dentistry can only be administered by dental practitioners with the requisite certification says this dependable Invisalign dentist in West Point
Therefore, when going for sedation dentistry, it's critical to consider the qualifications and experience of your preferred dentists. It's, therefore, essential to work with a team of qualified and competent dental professionals like the one at nepeandentalsedation.com.au for a safe and effective procedure.
Next is a brief description of each of the three common categories of sedation dentistry:
- Nitrous Oxide/Laughing Gas
Dentists recommend laughing gas to anxious adults and children to help them relax. Nitrous oxide works almost immediately and is administered by placing a mask over the patient's nose and having them inhale deeply. Just like it works quickly, laughing gas also wears out fast, and you can drive yourself home or back to work after your dental procedure. And a child can also go back to school immediately.
Laughing gas is used for various dental procedures, including root canals, teeth cleaning, and filling. However, laughing gas may not suffice for a more invasive and painful dental procedure. Laughing gas is considered to carry minimal risk because its side effects start to wear off immediately after the mask covering the nose is removed.
- Oral Conscious Sedation
Oral sedation is a popular form of sedation dentistry used for older children where sedative medication is administered in pill form, usually about 30 minutes before the beginning of a procedure.
It's common for kids who receive mild oral sedation to remain awake during the process. Children that receive higher doses of sedative medication can become drowsy but remain responsive to their dentists, although they hardly remember anything once the drug wears off.
- Intravenous (IV) Sedation
IV sedation, also referred to as sleep dentistry, is done by administering an anti-anxiety drug through the veins so that it goes directly into the blood. Despite the term' sleep dentistry,' IV sedation doesn't put you to sleep. However, it slightly knocks you off so that you're almost unaware of your surroundings and the work happening in your mouth.
IV sedation works fast and over an extended period, allowing your dentist to carry on with numerous procedures within one appointment. IV sedation wears off slowly, and you can still be drowsy a couple of hours after your procedure.
IV sedation is also ideal for older kids that may not fully benefit from oral conscious sedation. For kids anxious about intravenous options, a Feel Better Bear can help to calm them down.
Benefits Of Sedation Dentistry Among Kids
There are numerous benefits of sedation dentistry, including:
- Pain-Free Dental Procedures: Dental procedures can be painful, and kids have a low threshold for pain. Sedation dentistry makes it possible to carry out dental work with children minus the pain. With sedation, children can look forward to their dental appointments.
- Reduced Anxiety: Sedation enables dentistry plans to be carried out on children with special needs or those with various medical conditions that make it difficult for them to sit still.
- Procedural Effectiveness: When your child is calm and relaxed, a dentist can offer better treatment quality than when they're anxious and fidgeting.
- Cost-Effective: Sedation enables multiple treatment procedures during the same dental visit, saving time and money.
The above sedation dentistry benefits aren't limited to kids; they also extend to adults.
Final Word
Sedation dentistry is ideal for kids, and for adults too. It's an excellent option for kids and adults with dental anxiety or phobia. Using various sedation dentistry options allows patients to undergo pain-free dental procedures necessary for healthy and beautiful teeth. It's important to note that only qualified and experienced dental professionals must carry out sedation dentistry.
