Based on statistics, we know that three in every four Americans feel at least a little anxiety about receiving dental care. For twenty percent of these anxious patients, fear is enough to keep them from maintaining regular visits to the dentist. The team at Smile Center has extensive experience in providing gentle, compassionate dental care. We like to say that we cater to cowards, because we offer solutions that help anxious dental patients find dental visits far more pleasant than they could have ever imagined.
We understand that, for many people, the best way to provide care is with sedation. When you visit your dentist at Smile Center in Buffalo, you should feel at ease. We offer three types of sedation to facilitate positive, productive visits.
Laughing gas is a sedative that has been used in dentistry for well over a century. First discovered in the late 1700s, laughing gas is a gas with no color and no odor. When inhaled, it has positive sedative effects. In the dental setting, laughing gas is mixed with oxygen and delivered via a comfortable mask. Patients who receive this sedative quickly feel their anxiety diminishing. Many report a dream-like, euphoric feeling of happiness due to the effects of laughing gas. The effects of laughing gas wear off within minutes of completion of treatment. This means that the patient may safely resume all activities immediately, including driving.
Enteral sedation is the use of a prescription oral medication, taken about an hour before dental visits. This type of sedative will cause significant relaxation. Though it is necessary to obtain reliable transportation to and from our office when oral sedation is prescribed, we find that this is one of the most popular options among our patients.
We are happy to offer our patients IV sedation, as not all dental practices hold the proper license to do so. IV sedation includes the direct administration of sedative medication into the bloodstream, which very quickly produces a wonderful relaxing effect. IV sedation may be used for lengthy procedures, to allow a patient to complete a greater amount of treatment in a single visit, or simply to calm a very nervous patient. A nice benefit to IV sedation is that little to no recollection of dental treatment may remain.
We are so fortunate to live in a time when anxiety does not have to be a part of dental care. To experience positive visits to your dentist, contact Smile Center to learn more about sedation dentistry.