Sedation Dentistry

If you are seeing this text it is because you do not have the most recent Flash Player plugin installed, or because you do not have Javascript enabled. Please go here to download the Flash Player plugin: www.macromedia.com/software/flashplayer, and/or please enable Javascript from your browser preferences.

Are you fearful of going to the dentist? Do you feel sick just thinking about work being done on your teeth? We understand that not everyone is comfortable receiving dental treatment, and we are here to help address dental anxiety concerns. Our practice offers sedation dentistry to our patients in Greenville, Landrum and all of Upstate, SC, providing an effective solution for managing and overcoming dental anxiety. Before your appointment, you will swallow a small sedation pill and be accompanied by a companion to our office. Our sedation dentists and experienced team will make you completely comfortable and will monitor you closely while you are under sedation. Most patients feel no discomfort during or after their treatment, and many have little or no memory of the procedure at all. For many of our patients, sedation dentistry is the only way to go, and their testimonials speak for themselves. For more information, please visit www.sedationcare.com.

The Sedation Standard

Physicians have already set the standard of treating patients using sedation in the U.S. over the past 30 years. It is nothing new to be sedated for operations on knees, feet, wrists, ears, etc. In contrast, most dentists think we can grind, cut, and remove teeth with just Novocain. Most dentists do not want to go through the additional training that is necessary to sedate patients. You wouldn’t think of having an ear operation or a nose operation without sedation, so why is it considered acceptable to endure time-consuming, strenuous, noisy, and uncomfortable procedures on your teeth, one of the most sensitive parts of the body, with no sedation? We hope to change that by offering the choice of sedation to our patients. Our mission is to successfully treat high fear patients who suffer from dental anxiety using sedation dentistry options. Patients at our Greenville and Landrum offices, serving all of Upstate, SC, can learn more about this option by contacting our office.

In most cases, the patient is the one who needs to determine when sedation is needed. While many patients opt for sedation before undergoing lengthy procedures such as root canals or dental implant placement, this option is available for a variety of treatments. If you feel that sedation is necessary for your dental care, let us know. We are here to help.

1-2 Appointments or 8-10?

General dentistry is very time consuming. Patients with complex dental problems are often depressed when they’re told it will take 8-10 appointments over a period of several months to fix their teeth. This type of plan most often ends in failure for fearful patients who have been hurt by dentists in the past. They will go for one or two appointments to get out of pain and abandon the remaining treatment until they are in pain again. Many of you are familiar with this scenario since you have gone through it several times. This results in a lifetime of pain and an inability to smile due to embarrassment. Because of newer and safer sedation techniques utilizing a common sleeping pill, there is a growing trend in the United States among trained dentists to sedate patients. This enables us to complete the entire treatment in 1 or 2 appointments instead of 8 or 10. With this sedation, you will feel like you slept through your appointment and have little or no memory of the hours spent in the dental chair.

Type of Sedation

The sedation we use is oral sedation (pills). We use pills for several reasons:

Oral sedation is very safe.
With oral sedation, we can work on patients for a longer period of time.
The pills stay in the patient's system for several hours after the appointment, so we get few complaints of pain after procedures are completed.
Many of our patients are needle-phobic so they would not like to be told that we must use a needle to sedate them.

How You Will Feel

Most sedation dentistry patients say they feel like they have slept through the appointment. The most common response we hear is, “I remember taking some pills and the next thing I remember is waking up with my teeth fixed.” Most patients remember nothing about their treatment. A few will remember a little, usually at the end of the appointment, when we are getting them ready to go home. You will need someone to bring you to our office on the day of your sedation appointment and you MUST have someone take you home afterwards.

Safety

Safety is one of the primary reasons we use the oral sedation technique. The pill that we use is a common sleeping pill. In 1996, for example, an average of 1.7 million of these sleeping pills were taken daily. In total, 621,000,000 tablets were taken in 1996. The vast majority of these tablets were taken by patients at home to help them sleep at night. We give our patients more than they would take at home, but we use state-of-the-art, hospital-type monitoring equipment to assess the patient's pulse, oxygen saturation in the blood, and blood pressure to maintain the highest level of safety throughout the sedation dentistry appointment.

First Appointment Procedure

When you come into our office for the first time, usually already having completed the medical history and patient information, you will be greeted by one of our dentists and interviewed regarding the goals for your dental health. The doctor will talk with you about the problems you have had in the past and what your specific fears are. After the doctor has reviewed your medical history with you and addressed any concerns you wish to discuss, he/she will do a visual exam of your teeth. After the completion of that examination, they will order the necessary x-rays to diagnose and recommend a treatment plan. Normally, we ask for a few days to give the doctor time to read the x-rays and recommend treatment. At your consultation appointment, we will discuss your insurance benefits, if applicable, present the options for your choice of treatment, and discuss finances.

For more information about sedation dentistry for minimizing dental anxiety, contact our offices serving Greenville, Landrum, and all of Upstate, SC. We look forward to working with you to address your dental health needs.