Sedation Dentistry Winnipeg

Sedation Dentist Winnipeg

Do you feel worried or anxious before dental appointments? Let us know. We’re highly trained in sedation dentistry techniques. These techniques can help you feel relaxed and comfortable when you visit our clinic.

What is Dental Anxiety?

Dental anxiety is an aversion to going to the dentist. There are a lot of sources for dental anxiety – negative past experiences, an aversion to the unknown, or particular discomfort around needles or dental tools. 

One important concept in dentistry is the cycle of dental anxiety – patients who are afraid to visit the dentist develop oral health problems because they don’t get adequate care. Those problems require more extensive work, which can make patients more anxious – the cycle repeats.

Sedation dentistry is a method of breaking the cycle of dental anxiety. By using techniques to reduce or eliminate anxiety, the visit to the dentist’s becomes pleasant, and you’ll have far fewer dental health problems in the future.

How Sedation Dentistry Works

There are a number of options available for sedation dentistry, but they all have the same core principle – if you have less anxiety, your experience at our dental office will be better. 

One option is oral sedation. This type of sedation is a bit stronger than nitrous oxide, so the effects will continue a bit longer after your dental procedure is done. You’ll need someone to pick you up from your appointment. The medication is extremely safe and will drastically reduce your anxiety.

Relieving Anxiety

Looking for a sedation dentist Winnipeg patients trust? We can help. Not everyone wants to use sedation techniques to relieve their anxiety; that’s okay too. There are a number of other ways we can reduce your anxiety.

Information often helps; we can tell you exactly what procedures we’re doing, and why we’re doing them. We’ll also ensure that you always feel comfortable; we’ll never proceed with a procedure without talking to you about it first. We have blankets you can use to get comfortable, and you can choose what you watch while you’re in the chair – comfort is one of the best ways to alleviate nerves.

We are proud to offer 3 different types of sedation so you can rest assured that we can help you over come your dental fears no matter the service needed. The Winnipeg dentists at Westside Dental will work with you to choose the option that best suits your needs.

Nitrous Oxide Sedation – Laughing Gas

Laughing gas is a combination of Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen that is given to the patient through a mask placed over the patient’s nose. The gas works very quickly reaching the brain and providing a calming effect within a few minutes. The depth of sedation can be changed from moment to moment. This allows the person administering the gas to increase or decrease the depth of sedation. Other sedation techniques don’t allow for this as easily. Our patients enjoy the fact that once treatment is over, and the gas is turned off, they do not feel groggy the rest of the day. They can drive themselves home. However, if you cannot breathe through your nose (stuffed up nose from a cold, or you are a pure mouth breather) this option is not well suited for you.

Oral Sedation – Anti-Anxiety Medication

Most commonly, oral sedation (usually in the form of anti-anxiety pills) is prescribed for relieving anxiety in the hours immediately before a dental appointment. You are awake during the dental procedure, but are very relaxed or ‘happy’.

Note, you shouldn’t travel on your own after you’ve taken anti-anxiety pills in the doses prescribed by your dentist. Make sure you have an escort, even if you’re walking to your appointment! It’s easy to become disorientated and miss your stop if going by bus or train, or you might even forget that you’re on your way to your dentist’s office! So find someone to accompany you.

IV Sedation – (Intravenous Sedation)

Intravenous conscious sedation is when a drug, usually of the anti-anxiety variety, is administered into the blood system during dental treatment. IV sedation induces a state of deep relaxation and a feeling of not being bothered by what is going on around you. Also, the drugs used produce either partial or full memory loss (amnesia) for the period of time when the drug first kicks in until it wears off. As a result, time will appear to pass very quickly. You will not remember much of what happened, and some remember nothing at all. So, while you are not actually “asleep” during the procedure it may feel like you did in fact sleep through the whole thing.

Call us today at 1-204-415-4811