There is no question that routine dental care is necessary for a lifetime of oral health. This is true for all of us, even those who are extraordinarily contentious about the care they take of their teeth and gums. Dentists have the instrumentation and the training to see the earliest warning signs of dental decay, inflammation, and even the precursor to most dental disease, plaque. While research tells us that dental care is valuable for people of all ages, it has also revealed that millions of adults avoid seeing the dentist because they feel frightened.
Dental anxiety is an understandable obstacle. It is an obstacle, nonetheless, and we are committed to doing our part to help patients in areas such as McLean, Fairfax, and Alexandria better manage oral health with compassionate dental care. We are proud to offer safe, effective sedation dentistry so patients in need of change can head in the right direction.
There is no need to go into great detail about dental anxiety. If you suffer from this type of fright, you know it. You hesitate to make dental appointments and may have created a pattern in which you call the dentist, finally, when something has gone wrong. This is a common routine for many people with dental anxiety. The problem is, it exacerbates the problem. When you see the dentist only because the pain has become distracting, your experience in the dental office doesn’t change. We’d like to change that!
Our dentists offer sedation services including oral conscious sedation and IV sedation. A local anesthetic is also the norm. In our office, though, the tiny injections of numbing medication are not administered until sedation has had a noticeable effect on nervousness.
Oral conscious sedation is a convenient way to move through dental anxiety. Upon arriving in the dental office, a single pill is taken. Within a few minutes, the sedative medication calms the central nervous system to eliminate symptoms of anxiety such as rapid heart rate and sweating. Some have referred to sedation as twilight or sleep dentistry. The intent behind sedation is not to put a patient to sleep, but to create a sense of such comfortable relaxation that the patient can receive treatment without fear.
Sedation Dentistry Could Change Your Future
One of the best advantages to be gained from sedation dentistry is that fear of dental care is lost. If you would like to know what it feels like to make those six-month visits that prevent tooth pain, talk with us about your options for sedation.