If you are anxious about upcoming dental procedures, you might receive a recommendation for nitrous oxide sedation from the dentist treating you. The term nitrous oxide might sound out of place significantly if you are affected by dental phobia. You might think the dentist suggests providing you with laughing gas to make you laugh during dental work.
Do you have any information on how nitrous oxide helps you relax during dental procedures? Your dentist will happily answer any questions you might have about this sedation technique. However, if you want to prepare for nitrous oxide sedation before your dental appointment, this article provides a few points to remember before you schedule your appointment.
Nitrous Oxide Doesn't Make You Unconscious
While some forms of dental sedation make you exhausted and tired, making it challenging to operate vehicles after your appointment, nitrous oxide doesn't subject you to such challenges. In reality, nitrous oxide ensures you remain awake throughout your procedure, breathing a colorless and odorless gas delivered through a nasal mask. The laughing gas makes you euphoric while relaxing, making it possible for you to receive the treatment needs of your smile without stress or anxiety. During your procedure, you remain conscious and respond to your dentist's requests. However, your recollection of your appointment will likely remain fuzzy later.
Receiving nitrous oxide sedation in no way eliminates the need for local anesthesia to block pain impulses from the affected tooth or gums as a pain management technique. Instead, nitrous oxide merely manages your anxiety to keep you in a relaxed state during your dental work.
Nitrous Oxide Helps Manage More Issues Than Anxiety
Dental anxiety isn't the only reason sedation dentistry in South Austin suggests nitrous oxide to patients. The laughing gas also helps in other situations. For example, children are overly anxious during dental visits and remain uncooperative. However, when they receive nitrous oxide sedation, the gas relaxes them to eliminate fears in their minds and receive essential dental treatments without creating a stir. Adults with special needs also receive help from nitrous oxide for relaxation when receiving dental treatments, especially if they confront challenges remaining still in the dentist's chair or keeping their mouths open for an extended period.
Nitrous Oxide Is Not a New Discovery
Dentists have utilized laughing gas for over two centuries. Initially, it was used as a recreational drug. However, it was only in the 1840s that nitrous oxide became a popular sedative in dental treatments after an American dentist, Dr. Horace Wells, discovered it helped make dental treatments comfortable for patients. After that, the popularity of nitrous oxide gained traction by becoming safer and more effective.
Nitrous Oxide Sedation Is Safe
All forms of dental sedation require patients to provide their entire medical history and have a caregiver accompany them to their dental appointment as a safety feature. However, nitrous oxide is perfectly safe when administered by the dentist 78748. This dental professional evaluates your medical history and the medications you take to ensure you will not encounter more adverse reactions. They also monitor your vitals and adjust the gas dosage as required. In addition, the sedative effects of nitrous oxide dissipate soon after removing the mask, allowing you to resume your regular activities after meeting the dentist without feeling any after-effects.
Nitrous oxide sedation enables many patients, including children, to overcome dental anxiety and maintain healthy smiles without concerns about their dental health.
Before, during, & after the Procedure
Nitrous oxide sedation doesn't require any preparation before your procedure because you merely arrive at the practice of the dentist near me for your appointment and receive the treatments scheduled.
During your treatment and after receiving nitrous oxide sedation, the dentist gives you local anesthesia if required in the mouth if you undergo processes like deep cleaning to control gingivitis, which causes discomfort. After the dentist completes the deep cleaning, they deliver oxygen through the mask over your nose to help any nitrous oxide remaining in your system dissipate quickly.
After your dental appointment and the procedure scheduled, you can proceed back to work or home, driving your vehicle with relief in your mind that you have received the dental treatment necessary without experiencing fearsome dental anxiety. In addition, you also look forward to your next dental visit knowing that dentists are not scary individuals after all.
If you are anxiousabout receiving treatment from a dentist, Peak Dental — South Austin can helpyou receive essential treatments by providing nitrous oxide sedation. Kindlyarrange an appointment with this practice to overcome your dental anxiety andstay on top of your dental health using this excellent sedative.
