Dental Sedation Can Ease Your Dental Anxiety

How common is dental phobia?

According to experts, as many as 40 million Americans suffer from dental anxiety, many of whom avoid the dentist completely.

The dentists at Creating Smiles know that this is a serious issue for anyone who has to deal with this situation. More importantly, we know we can help at our dentist offices in Valparaiso and St. John, IN.

Believe it or not, we want to see patients who haven’t been to the dentist in years. We know that avoiding dental care greatly increases your risk of oral health problems and even dental emergencies.

It’s also why sedation dentistry is an important part of what we do. We know — and we have seen — how much of a difference this can make for our patients and for their oral health.

We Want You To Feel Comfortable

If we have learned anything, we have learned that it’s much easier to help a patient who is relaxed. It’s better for you and for the dentist or hygienist who is helping you.

Our concern about dental anxiety isn’t just about providing basic oral care. That is part of it, but we are also concerned about how anxiety affects you.

When you feel anxious, your body feels stressed. When your body is stressed, it releases stress hormones. That can lead to muscle tension, headaches, rapid heart rate, and increased blood pressure among other issues.

Another concern is anxiety can cause you to experience a “fight or flight” sensation. You can trust us when we say that we don’t want you to do either of those things.

Dental sedation can help you remain calm and comfortable during your visit with us.

Oral Sedation

At our practice, we offer oral conscious sedation for our patients.

This is simple for everyone involved. All you have to do is take a pill before your appointment. We wait to make sure the medicine has taken effect before we begin your treatment.

Once we know you are in a relaxed state of mind, we can perform a basic cleaning and examination or more complicated procedures. You won’t feel anything, and more often than not, you won’t remember anything about your procedure.

The medicine will leave you feeling drowsy or groggy. You may fall asleep.

We also are able to handle procedures that may have been spread out over multiple visits in a single visit when patients are under sedation. This means sedation dentistry could mean fewer trips to our office. As much as we enjoy seeing all our patients, we know some of you would prefer to come to the dentist office less frequently.

You MUST make arrangements for a family member or friend to bring you to and from our office if you choose to receive oral sedation. The effects of the medication can last for hours, and you should not drive until it has completely worn off.

Who Are Good Candidates For Sedation Dentistry?

In general, anyone who has dental anxiety, although this is recommended for patients with higher levels of dental fear.

However, we do want to be a little more specific.

If you have avoided the dentist for years because of you anxiety, sedation dentistry can make it much easier for you to get back in a dental chair.

If you have a fear of pain, oral sedation is great for that. One of the features of our medicine is that it is an analgesic. It prevents you from feeling pain while you are under its effects.

Many patients have a sensitive gag reflex, this is a great option for those patients, too. When you are sedated, your muscles stay relaxed so you don’t respond the same way to the instruments used to clean your teeth or to take X-rays.

In our practice, we have learned that sedation dentistry is often the first step in a process. Many patients came to us or were referred to our office because of their dental anxiety.

When they came for their first appointments, they used sedation dentistry to get through it. As they became more comfortable with us, many also stopped asking for sedation.

We are proud that we can say that we have helped patients overcome their dental anxiety. We just might be able to help you, too.

Take The First Step

We want to be clear. Sedation dentistry is not a magic pill. If you have dental anxiety, it’s not going to vanish in a single visit to Creating Smiles.

Our hope, however, is that you will feel a little less anxious after each appointment. Maybe, working together, we can lessen your fear of the dentist one little bit at a time.

To learn about us or about dental sedation, use our online contact form or call either of our offices, 219-322-9920 for St. John and 219-462-1970 for Valparaiso.