Sedation Dentistry

So we offer a couple different types of anesthesia here in the office. And of course, the first being local anesthesia. But for patients who have anxiety or if it's a more complicated procedure, we usually provide some type of sedation. And for certain patients, that procedure is simple but have anxiety, sometimes a light sedation will work, where they're still somewhat conscious, but very relaxed and sleepy. And that can work really well for dental implants. For wisdom teeth, we generally do deeper sedation. It's a little more involved, and it keeps the patients very comfortable. You know, once the patient is sedated, we're still going to provide some local anesthesia. So when they get done there, they're going to be numb for a few hours. Ir keeps them very comfortable, allows them to have time to get home. So they don't have any discomfort while they're traveling home. So light sedation, we'll usually use that for our more simple procedures. For more complex procedures, particularly working in the back or if we're working on multiple areas of the jaw, we'll do a deeper sedation a lot of times. In order to provide sedation in your office, you need extra training. And oral surgeons undergo four to six years of extra training beyond dental school and a lot of emphasis during those years is placed on anesthesia. It can be a little intimidating and scary having surgery in your mouth, especially when you're awake, even when you know it's going to be numb. So the sedation is nice because it alleviates all that. And the patient can come in, we start an IV, give them some medicine, and they kind of just drift off. And then we can do the procedure in a very comfortable manner for them. And they wake up and they're done.