Dental Sedation
Portland, OR
 At West End Dental, we are dedicated to giving you the highest quality dental care in a way that keeps you both healthy and comfortable. That's why we offer several different types of dental sedation to our patients. Whether you suffer from fear or anxiety related to your dental visit, or you need relief during a dental surgery, we have a sedation option for you.
When there are issues with your teeth that require the use of oral surgery, we want you to remain calm and relaxed while we resolve them. When oral surgery is recommended, we urge you to consider using a form of dental sedation so that your treatment can proceed as painlessly as possible. The majority of our patients choose a type of dental sedation when pursuing such procedures and, to help your oral surgery pass by easily and without undue irritation, we encourage you to do the same.
Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide, also referred to as "laughing gas", is one of our most effective dental sedation tools because it counteracts incoming pain through the use of euphoric and pleasurable feelings. After you have inhaled nitrous oxide, your body and its reaction time slows down. We can give you this colorless and odorless gas during your appointment, and it kicks in fast.
The swiftness of its effects gives us a degree of flexibility that other forms of sedation cannot match. If you need more nitrous oxide, it is easy to give you some more and, once the day’s procedure is over, the effects are easy and quick to reverse. Altogether, these reasons contribute to our belief that nitrous oxide is one of the safest methods of dental sedation available.
Oral Conscious Sedation
For those of our patients who dislike the idea of breathing in sedative gas or receiving sedation through the veins, oral sedation can be an ideal tool for putting you at ease and minimizing any pain during your surgery. Unlike those other forms of sedation, oral conscious sedation lets you take a pill hours before your procedure that will enable you to come in for your surgery in a relaxed mood that will reduce any fear or anxiety.
The pill is a Benzodiazepine like Xanax, Halcion, or Valium. Though this method leaves you feeling quite drowsy during the surgery, you will still be conscious, able to listen and respond to our surgeon’s instructions. These factors make oral conscious sedation a safe and responsible choice when it comes to oral surgery.
Intravenous Sedation (IV)
There are many of our patients who so dislike the idea of being at the dentist’s that they would sooner not be aware or remember any part of their oral surgery. Intravenous, or IV, sedation is another sedation option that occurs at our office just prior to your treatment, and we administer the sedative directly through one of your veins. This makes IV sedation highly effective and quick to take effect.
It is also known to cause a notable period of amnesia, which will leave you unable to remember anything that happened during your oral surgery. If your fear of oral surgery is substantial, this outcome can be highly desirable and can make the procedure as low stress as possible for you.
Anxiety-Free Dental Visits
We recognize that oral surgery or even routine dental visits can be a frightening and uncomfortable prospect to many of our patients. Your level of comfort is highly important to us, and we want to create an environment that will make your treatment as painless and anxiety-free as possible for you. Our practice aims to protect every smile, and our various dental sedation options can be an effective tool for doing so.
If you think that the use of dental sedation might be right for you for an upcoming treatment and you would like to learn more, call us today at (503) 446-2957.
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