Teeth Cleaning

Will a Dentist Sedate You for a Cleaning?

Jul 20, 2022

Getting your dental cleanings from your dentist is a comfortable procedure that doesn’t cause significant discomfort unless you have avoided dental visits for too long to have excessive dental plaque deposits on the teeth and beneath the gum line. However, many non-invasive dental procedures are challenging for people with special needs. As a result, these people tend to avoid regular dental appointments or neglect the teeth cleaning needed every six months.

Children may also fear teeth cleanings if they are taken to a general dentist whose practices are typically not kid friendly and do not have dental instruments specifically for children. Dental sedation is an approach to oral health that focuses on experiencing safety and comfort in the dentist’s chair without fearing the visit and being willing to return for repeat appointments.

Sedation ranges from mild to deep depending on the intensity of the procedure needed by the patient. Unfortunately, even non-invasive processes pose challenges for people affected by dental anxiety or special needs encouraging them to miss meetings with the dentist near you for minor procedures like a dental cleaning.

Can I Ask for Anesthesia for Teeth Cleaning?

When you visit your dentist for any dental process, including cleaning your teeth, you have the freedom to request anesthesia during the process. The dentist will likely consider your request favorably if you are affected by a dental phobia or have special needs or mental, physical, medical, cognitive, and developmental conditions that need attention when getting dental treatments.

Dental cleanings do not typically involve sedation because most patients endure the cleaning with little or no pain or anxiety. However, if you convince the dentist did you find the process challenging to sit through, you can request anesthesia during the cleaning, understanding that the dentist will likely give you inhalable nitrous oxide dissipating quickly soon after the appointment. However, laughing gas as nitrous oxide also increases your pain threshold to make dental cleanings more comfortable and beneficial to your dental and overall health.

What Dental Procedures Require Anesthesia?

Dentists perform various procedures besides dental cleanings, including processes like tooth extractions, cavity fillings, tooth restorations with dental crowns, replacing missing teeth with dental bridges or implants, root canals, et cetera. However, the procedures mentioned are painful, making them practically impossible to perform without anesthesia.

If you must have a tooth extracted or filled, you can request anesthesia for dental procedures that will likely cause significant pain during and after the process. Similarly, replacing missing teeth with dental bridges or implants requires tooth structure removal or surgery to place implants deep into your jawbone. In these circumstances, the dentist will likely offer you different levels of sedation after considering the duration of the procedure or the extent of the damage to your tooth.

For example, tooth extractions merely require 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the kind of procedure you are undergoing and whether the tooth is visible or impacted. While visible teeth are typically extracted after providing local anesthesia, dentists might also include laughing gas to calm your anxiety. Unfortunately, if you are undergoing a procedure for eradicating infections within a tooth needing endodontic treatment, the treatment lasts 90 minutes or more, depending on which tooth is affected. In such cases, you will likely receive moderate dental sedation besides local anesthesia near the affected tooth to ensure you don’t feel discomfort in the mouth. At the same time, you remain calm during the treatment because of the moderate sedation dentist provides.

Dental sedation is an excellent option for people with dental anxiety and avoiding dental visits to compromise their oral health and smile. Sedation is a comfortable technique for establishing a relaxed state of mind to make you confident of receiving any treatment you need. However, you must understand sedation merely calms your anxiety without offering protection against the pain you might feel. Therefore you also receive local anesthesia in the mouth that helps block pain impulses from the affected tooth and gums.

Besides the above, some conditions that require sedation dentistry include people affected by Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Down syndrome, spinal cord injuries, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, et cetera, with challenges sitting down in the dentist chair also benefit from dental sedation even for minor non-invasive procedures like cleanings and exams. Therefore, if you fear dental visits and avoid seeing your dentist regularly, you can request sedation provided by most dentists to alleviate your fears.

All Smile Dental Care addresses specific issues of every patient to provide special needs dental care they need. If dental appointments concern you, kindly arrange an appointment with this practice today to receive your dental cleanings to maintain your oral health in optimal shape.

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