What is dental sedation?

Dental sedation is the general term for the procedures that allow patients to undergo dental work while asleep or comfortably relaxed so that they do not experience pain or anxiety. Oral sedation consists of inducing a relaxed state through the means of specific sedation medicines. Different types of medicines induce different levels of sedation.

What are the different levels of dental sedation?

The lightest form of sedation used by sleep dentists is inhalation sedation (anxiolysis), commonly known as laughing gas or happy gas. This type of conscious sedation uses nitrous oxide, which patients inhale before certain dental procedures to become more relaxed and overcome their dental phobia.

The second type used by conscious sedation dentists is called intravenous (IV) sedation. It is a combination of various tranquilizing drugs administered directly into your blood stream. Normally this type of sedation offers stronger calming effects than nitrous oxide, but the patient is not completely unconscious. This type of sedation is also known as “twilight sleep” because it induces such a state of relaxation that the patient may think they are sleeping, but their reflexes are actually fully functional, and they can react to physical and verbal stimuli.

These first two levels are called “conscious sedation.” Unlike general anesthesia, the patient is conscious throughout the entire dental visit. Conscious sedation dentists are regulated by various state legislatures in a slightly different manner than general dentists.

The third and strongest type of sedation is general anesthesia. This can only be performed by a sleep dentist who has specialized in anesthesiology, or by an anesthesiologist. During this type of sedation, the patient is completely asleep and totally unaware of his surroundings. Because this type of dental sedation is significantly more complex and has the potential for causing a higher number of side effects, it is rarely recommended for regular procedures. Rather, general anesthesia is more appropriate for complex oral surgery or restorative dental procedures.