Goodlettsville Dental Services

Sedation dentistry is a term that refers to the use of anesthesia during treatment to put patients into a relaxed state, almost like sleep. Sedation dentistry is often used during procedures that require an extensive amount of time in the treatment chair. Sedation is ideal for patients who exhibit dental phobia or have difficulty controlling their movements. While sedation dentistry implies that patients are unconscious, this is usually not the case. Some forms of sedation dentistry simply alleviate anxiety or put patients in a sleep-like state, so that little is felt or remembered from the dental procedure. We typically provide oral sedation in which the patient is in a twilight sleep and generally will have no memory of the day.

There are different types and degrees of dental sedation; the sedation dentistry technique we will recommend will depend upon the treatment being performed and/or the degree of your dental anxiety. Dr. Weaver will be able to tell you if you are a candidate for moderate sedation with oral sedatives or nitrous oxide, or deeper sedation with intravenous drugs. At Rivergate Dental Care in Goodlettsville, we specialize in several forms of Sedation Dentistry.

Intravenous (IV) Sedation

IV Sedation also known as Deep Conscious Sedation. With this type of sedation, medications are administered directly into the blood stream. The greatest advantage of IV Sedation is that if someone is not sedated enough, the doctor can administer more medication and the effects are instantaneous.

How is IV sedation administered?

As the name suggests Intravenous Sedation means that the drug is put into a vein for sedation. An extremely thin needle is put into a vein close to the surface of the skin in either the arm or the back of your hand. Your pulse and oxygen levels are measured using a “pulse oximeter” continually. This gadget clips onto a finger or an earlobe and measures pulse and oxygen saturation. Blood pressure before and after the procedure would be checked with a blood pressure measuring machine called “sphygmomanometer”, also referred to as “sphyg”.

What drugs are used?

The most commonly used groups of medications in IV Sedation are:

1) Anti-anxiety sedative Benzodiazepines (“benzos”): IV administered benzos have 3 main effects: they reduce anxiety/relax you, they make you sleepy, and they produce partial or total amnesia (i. e. make you forget what happened during some or, less frequently, all of the procedure). Once the procedure is over appropriate reversal agent is given intravenously to revive you.

2) Barbiturates: Barbiturates (sleep-inducing drugs) are not drugs of choice currently for conscious sedation as it calls for the presence of a trained anesthesiologist and as there are no reversal agent. Barbiturates have only one advantage over benzos, and that is that they can be used to provide more than 1 1/2 hours of conscious sedation (which is about the max with benzos).

3) Opioids: Opioids (strong pain-killers) are used as an add-on to either benzos (for procedures up to about 1 1/2 hours) or barbiturates (for procedures longer than 2 hours). Opioids which may be used for IV sedation include:

* Meperidine
* Morphine
* Butorphanol
* Nalbuphine
* Fentanyl
* Pentazocine

4) Propofol: The advantage of Propofol is the very rapid recovery time, less than 5 mins. The disadvantage is the drug must be continuously administered, so the drug is pumped in using an electric infusion pump, at the dose rate set by the anaesthetist.

At Rivergate Dental Care, we’ve treated patients from all over the Nashville area – including Goodlettsville, White House, Madison, Hendersonville, Gallatin and beyond! Give us a call today and soon you will be waking up to a new smile! 1 800 FIX MY TEETH