Sedation Dentistry

The Sedation Standard
Physicians have already set the standard for treating patients using sedation in the U.S. over the past 30 years. It is nothing new to sedate patients for operations on knees, feet, wrists, ears, noses…just about everything.  Sedation is also used to calm nerves and help patients to relax prior to any procedure.

As dentists, we often ask our patients to endure time-consuming, strenuous, noisy, and uncomfortable procedures on the most sensitive, personal part of the body (the mouth).  You wouldn't think of having an ear operation or a nose operation without sedation, but when some patients ask their dentists for sedation, the dentists attempt to work outside of the established standard of sedation, and discourage what their patients want. Hence, we as dentists treat only 50% of the population while physicians treat more than 90%.

Sedation for certain types of dental care has been used for over thirty years. If you asked a hundred patients who have had their wisdom teeth removed how they had it done, most would say they were put to sleep to have them removed.

At Mortenson Family Dental, we believe that the patient should determine what procedures warrant sedation, not the dentist.  If you feel that sedation, which is the standard of care for the rest of the body, is necessary for your dental care, call us.

Type of Sedation
The sedation we utilize is oral sedation (pills). We use pills for several reasons.

• Oral sedation is extremely safe.
• Many of our patients are needle-phobic and prefer oral sedation to that of a needle.
• With oral sedation we can work on patients for a longer period of time.
• The pills stay in a patients system for several hours after the appointment, so we get few complaints of pain, even after procedures are completed.

How You Will Feel
The most common response to sedation we hear is, "I remember taking some pills and the next thing I remember is waking up with my teeth fixed." Most patients remember nothing about their treatment. A few, however, will remember a little, usually at the end of the appointment as we are assisting them to go home. Due to the nature of sedation, you will need someone to bring you to our office on the day of your sedation appointment and you MUST have someone take you home afterwards.

Safety
Safety is the primary reason we use oral sedation at Mortenson Family Dental. The pill that we use is a common sleeping pill, and is safe for even common use in your home. We give our patients a higher dosage than what you would find in the over-the-counter pills, but we use state-of-the-art monitoring equipment, similar to what you would find in a hospital, to watch over you.  We continually assess pulse, oxygen saturation in the blood, and blood pressure to ensure that your safety is paramount.

Decision
If the only thing standing between you and getting the dental care you want is a couple of tablets of medication…it really couldn't be simpler!