If you are terrified of going to the dentist and yet you desperately need to have a procedure done, the answer to your problem is now only a sedative pill away. Thanks to oral sedation, you no longer have to suffer from dental anxiety and the pain and discomfort of your dental emergency. Whether it’s a tooth extraction, a root canal treatment or a dental filling you need, you can get the necessary treatment without the additional stress brought on by your fear of the usual sights, sounds and smells of the dental clinic. By taking the prescribed oral sedative pill before your procedure, you can be relaxed and cooperative throughout your treatment for a truly comfortable and anxiety-free time as you sit in the dentist’s chair.

Oral sedation techniques make use of typical sedative drugs like Halcion and Valium to make the patient drowsy and less sensitive to the drill and to the bitter or sour taste of the dental solutions used in the treatment that can easily trigger the gag reflexes. A small dose for minimal anxiety is enough to keep you sedated yet still awake and conscious to respond to the dentist’s instructions while a higher dose for moderate anxiety can put you to sleep. Aside from the level of anxiety, the complexity and length of the procedure is also a factor for determining the dosage of the sedative pill.

Oral sedation is particularly helpful for patients that may not be open to receiving inhalation sedation via nitrous oxide (laughing gas) or those that also have a fear of needles, making them unreceptive to intravenous sedation that passes the sedative drug through the veins. As the oral sedatives help to calm a patient down, local anesthesia is injected to the affected area to numb the patient. Since oral sedation deals with medication that may have contraindications, only a trained and duly-certified dentist should administer the sedative, after performing the necessary review of the patient’s medical history including a discussion on current medicines taken and any allergies present.

In the state of New Jersey, Lincroft dentist Dr. Mitchel Friedman of the Newman Springs Dental Care clinic is one of those certified dentists. Contact his office at 732-352-3903 for your dental emergencies.