Chitika

Chitika

lördag 7 november 2009

Sedation Dentistry

By Wesley Lucas

Various tactics like anesthesia is applied by dentists to keep the patients calm and relaxed during the agonizing process of dental treatment. This is called sedation dentistry. Dentistry phobia is found in majority of human beings, especially those who have to spend endless hours in the dentist's clinic. Such people especially children are put under sedation by dentists. In dentistry, sedation is a process of keeping the patients under a stupor to alleviate fear, irritations and pain.

Before the actual process of treatment starts, the dentist finalizes the type and level of sedation needed for a patient. Deep sedation is induced in many by administering intravenous drugs. But most patients need only moderate sedation with oral sedatives, nitrous oxide etc.

People with dental phobia dread visiting the dentist, his office and even the tools. Even in case of dire situations they try to postpone the session with the dentist. On the other hand, some suffer form dental anxiety, which is a lesser form of dental phobia. Whatever may be the condition both categories of people are at the losing edge, since they hesitate to avail the services of a dentist. The result would be poor dental health. Most of the time children are taken to the dentist by force against their wishes.

Such people are kept calm and relaxed throughout the treatment process through sedation dentistry. If it is for shorter durations, oral sedatives are more than enough to soothe the frayed nerves of patient. But these are not pain relievers and a local anesthetic is normally injected for the purpose. Intravenous sedation and inhalation also have the same purpose. Dentists use general anesthesia to keep the patient unconscious, if the process is exasperating and time consuming. In such cases, local anesthetic is not needed at all since the patient is completely out of senses.

People respond differently to sedation dentistry. For anxiolysis or light sedation, nitrous oxide gas or laughing gas is used by the dentists. Intravenous sedative is applied for moderate sedation. The patient would be fully awake in both the cases. In the case of deep sedation, a state between unconsciousness and consciousness is brought about and the patient remains relaxed but able to follow commands. By applying anesthesia, very deep sedation or unconsciousness is achieved and this is normally used for performing surgeries.

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