Sedation Dentistry in Carson City

Most dental sedation is considered minimal. The intention is to reduce anxiety while allowing a patient to be responsive to instructions from the dentist. Depending on the level of a patient’s fear or pain threshold, your dentist may choose to use more sedation. During minimal sedation, the patient is awake and fully conscious, but in a relaxed state.

During moderate sedation, a patient may not remember much but is responsive to dentists’ instructions. This is the most common practice. Although patients may not recall the procedure, they are conscious during treatment and can recover from the effects of the sedation fairly quickly.

During deep sedation, dental patients are right at the brink of consciousness but can be woken up when needed. This is sedation dentistry at its highest level. By using general anesthesia that renders the patient unconscious, extensive amounts of dental work can be done without a patient having to suffer through it.

The most common method of dental sedation is nitrous oxide, also known as “laughing gas” to many patients. The gas is taken through an oxygen mask in the dentist’s office, allowing the dentist to control how aware a patient is. It wears off quickly and leaves the patient feeling alert as if waking up from a short nap after the procedure.

With sedation dentistry, the most common pill given to patients is Halcion. This is a drug prescribed primarily for light insomnia. It has a fast onset and lasts only a short time (generally 1-2 hours), making it ideal for many dental treatments.

Intravenous sedation or IVs are commonly used in moderate to deep dental sedation. It works quickly and can be monitored by the dentist to control how conscious a patient is during a procedure.