Many people are incredibly nervous when visiting the dentist, then the safety of sedation becomes another concern.
We are particularly sympathetic to “dental phobics”, we care and have empathy for our Adelaide patients. Our principle dentist Dr. Elizabeth Chryssidis is a specialist in sedation dentistry, so we can provide safe sedation dentistry for people who are very anxious about dental care.
Some call it sleep dentistry. But its not really sleep, and this is one of the things that you need to know, because this is an important safety factor. It may seem as if you are asleep during your appointment, you are sleepy and relaxed, and you will not even remember your appointment.
The technical term for this is “conscious sedation”. This means that your protection reflexes, your breathing, your heart and everything else is functioning normally but you are still very quiet and comfortable. All administered intravenous sedation is performed and supervised by a qualified and experienced anaesthetist and our dentists are specially trained for sedation dentistry.
As an extra safety measure, it is standard procedure to monitor vital functions with the pulse oximeter. This is a device which ensures that there is enough oxygen in the blood. All of this is controlled, monitored and performed by a qualified anaesthetist.
However! it is prohibited to give IV anaesthesia to pregnant patients, people suffering from depression, who are intoxicated or who have a known allergy to certain sedative drugs.
You also need to advise if there are any changes to your medical history that we are unaware of.
In Dr. Chryssidis’s opinion it is safer to have IV sedation than to try to cope with the fear; that could cause situations such as fainting, heart attack, diabetes, stroke or any other emergency events.
Another huge advantage of sedation dentistry is that it allows our dental team to perform large amounts of treatment at the one time, or perform procedures that would otherwise require the extra expenses of going to hospital.
Dr Elizabeth Chryssidis is a member of the SA Dental Association in Adelaide and has tutored at the University of Adelaide Dental School.
Sedation dentistry can help you overcome your fear. And we also hope that one good experience will lead to another, and you will be able to get regular dental care.
