Sedation Dentistry: The Answer to Dental Anxiety?

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Dental anxiety is something which affects not just kids but also adults. Dentists estimate that there are millions of adult Americans all over the country who are petrified of going to the dentist. There are different reasons for why individuals may be scared of going to the dentist. It might be because they have suffered traumatic experiences when they were younger, or it may be because of all the scary but misleading scenes involving dentists and procedures seen in movies. Despite the reason for why individuals suddenly become stricken with dental anxiety, these patients suddenly drop their dentists from their lives and never again go back for treatments or even routine dental check-ups.

The Cost of Fear

Fear can actually cost you more than you would be willing to pay for. First off, by avoiding the dentist, you are allowing minor dental procedures to develop into more severe infections which can only be treated with the help of costly treatments, or worse, through dental extraction. If you want to avoid shelling out more than what you can afford, then it’s time for you to get back to your dentist. This means getting over your fear of the dentist.

Sedation Dentistry

So how can you get over your dental anxiety exactly? You can start off with telling your dentist that you have the condition in the first place and then ask about the possibility of going for sedation dentistry in Sacramento.

Sedation dentistry is a new field of dentistry wherein patients are given medications in order to render them in a state of calm throughout the entire procedure. There are different levels of sedation as well as different types of sedatives which your dentist can choose to administer to you depending on the level of your dental anxiety as well as the complexity of the procedure.

Given that there are different levels of sedation, it’s possible that a patient to only feel giddy and lightheaded, with the help of nitrous oxide, while it’s also possible for a patient to become less responsive to stimuli with his or her senses becoming blurred. Deep sedation is something is reserved for the most invasive procedures. In order for you to find out which type of sedative is the best for you, you need to consult your dentist so that you can determine your options. And be very honest about your past and current drug use.

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