Can Oral Sedation Help You?

Oral sedation helps patients to feel relaxed enough to undergo dental treatment without fear or anxiety due to past negative experiences, phobia, emotional difficulty, age or other personal characteristics. Oral sedation in SW Edmonton makes it possible for people with understandable and natural anxiety and fear to receive necessary dental treatment.

Can oral sedation help you?

Undergoing oral sedation near you can help you to get the care that you need without letting any of the following characteristics get in the way. If you or your family member — even children — falls into any of these categories, ask a dentist near you how oral sedation can help. 

If you experience fear and anxiety, sedative drugs administered through a pill an hour before your appointment will make you feel calm and relaxed. You will reach such a state of relaxation that you will fall asleep and may awake without any recollection of having undergone dental work. 

If you have an unusually low pain threshold or acutely sensitive teeth, you may not have been able to benefit from local anesthetics in the past. People experience and perceive pain differently, but patients who do not seem to be able to “get numb” will be protected from negative pain experiences with oral sedation from a dentist in SW Edmonton. 

If you have an acute gag reflex, oral sedation can eliminate that involuntary defence mechanism as a barrier to dental treatment. Your gag reflex is an involuntary defence mechanism that your body uses to protect your pharynx and throat from penetration by foreign objects. It can be extremely uncomfortable for you and can interfere with the dentist’s work as well. Oral sedation will relax you — emotionally, mentally and physically — enough to prevent that gag reflex from getting in the way.

If you need to undergo complex or multiple dental treatments. Some dental procedures — wisdom teeth extractions, implant surgery and root canals, for example — are more physically demanding and intimidating than others. Even though they’re pain-free thanks to modern treatment techniques, they’re still physically exhausting and naturally cause anxiety. Even someone who is not afraid of routine dental work will find undergoing complex or multiple procedures easier, less physically stressful and less physically exhausting while under oral sedation. It will also help your dentist to work even more efficiently, knowing that you are relaxed and because your body will not be tense due to anticipated sensations. 

If you have a child with special needs. What an adult might find routine or mildly stressful can be much more emotionally impactful for a child, especially a child with special needs, physical exceptionalities, difficulty staying still, prior negative experiences at the dentist or who have not yet learned to trust their dentist completely. Your dentist can provide sedative drugs tailored precisely to your child’s needs to ensure they get the dental care they need without exposing your vulnerable child to undue stress and anxiety. 

Your dentist will determine whether oral sedation is right for you — and what level of sedation and particular drug is most appropriate — after a careful review of your medical history, prior experience of anesthetics and sedative drugs, and the specific treatment that you or your child will need to undergo.

We understand that the prospect of receiving drugs to help you to sleep through dental work can itself be a stressful thought. It’s ironic because the goal of oral sedation is to help you to eliminate that stress. Take all the time you need to identify all your questions and concerns, then contact a dentist near you. The caring and professional staff there will likewise take all the time required to answer your questions and address your concerns.