Sedation Benefits You and the Dentist, Especially You

For dental practitioners, one of the hardest things to do is to keep a patient still during a procedure. Dentists having to deal with a patient's anxiety-fueled gag reflex often find themselves slowed down, resulting in more appointments and a patient finding his or her schedule delayed. From a patient's perspective, it is quite hard to stay still when the dental symphony of drills and grinding starts to fill your ears.

With this in mind, both parties can benefit from the use of sedatives in order to control these natural body reactions. The benefits of using dental sedatives include allowing patients to relax, thus increasing their comfort. Some patients also claim that the sedative leaves them with little or no memory of the treatment. Dentists also benefit due to their ability to control unwanted movement from the patient, allowing them to work at a much more efficient pace.

Before you run off to any dentist and ask them to use a sedative to treat you, it is important to know that sedation dentistry is a specialized field and requires special training on the part of the dentist. Make sure that your dentist has the necessary training and experience before asking for sedation.