Dental phobias are a surprisingly common barrier for many patients when it comes to maintaining their dental health.
When patients suffer from extreme anxiety regarding dental visits, they often avoid their regular checkups and even necessary dental procedures.
Obviously, avoiding the dentist can have a very real negative impact on your overall dental hygiene.
As such, dentists and doctors alike may recommend certain psychological techniques to overcome this fear.
Still, for many patients pharmacological alternatives may be their only hope of coping with their dental phobia.
Many experienced dentists now offer sedation dentistry as a solution to severe fear of the dentist's chair and procedures.
Depending on the level of the patient's fear and anxiety, there are four main types of sedation dentistry.
Through the use of various medications, this type of dental treatment approach allows mild to deep sedation so the patient can undergo necessary procedures without worrying about the paralyzing fear they have for dentists and dental treatments.
The four main types of sedation dentistry are:

1. Inhaled Sedation relies on the use of nitrous oxide which is commonly known as laughing gas.
   The gas helps patients relax, and the dentist has complete control over the level of sedation.
   The effects wear off quickly but may allow the patient to relax enough for regular checkups and common procedures.
   
2. Oral Sedation allows for minimal to moderate sedation depending on the needs of the patient.
   Oral medications make patients drowsy, but they usually remain awake during the procedure.
   
3. Moderate IV Sedation involves the delivery of a sedative intravenously.
   The sedation is fast acting, and the dentist can continually adjust the level of sedation with the goal of maintaining a moderate level of sedation.
   
4. General Anaesthesia provides the deepest level of sedation so that patients are totally unconscious during the procedure.
   This type of sedation is used only with patients who have very severe dental phobias or during advanced procedures.
   

Why Sedation Dentistry There are 5 main reasons you may choose to undergo sedation dentistry:

1. Dental visits are perceived as much shorter, and many patients feel the treatment requires only a few minutes while in reality a few hours may have passed.
   
2. Patients have reduced anxiety about more advanced procedures often allowing for these procedures to be completed in fewer visits.
   This is because your dentist can work for longer while you are sedated.
   
3. Patients who need help to relax during their dental visits.
   This is particularly true for patients who suffer general fear of dentists.
   
4. Patients with a pronounced gag reflex may also benefit from sedation dentistry.
   While behavioural treatments are usually recommended to help patients overcome this sensitive gag reflex, in some cases the only solution may be sedation.
   
5. Sedation dentistry is also recommended for patients during painful dental procedures.
   For example, the discomfort associated with wisdom tooth extraction can be minimized with sedation dentistry.