Are you scared of going to the dentist? You are not alone. Believe it or not, dental anxiety is a real thing. The good thing is, there is help – because having a fear shouldn’t be cause to have poor dental health. Intravenous Conscious Sedation (aka IV sedation) is when a drug, usually of the anti-anxiety variety, is administered into the blood system during dental treatment.
Some concerns with this procedure may naturally arise. What does it feel like? Will I be asleep? A lot of dental offices and practices use terms such as “sleep dentistry” or “twilight sleep” when talking about IV sedation. These terms are more descriptive of deep sedation than what we know as actual sleep. Deep sedation is classified as general anesthesia (even though sedation occurs on a continuum).
So, it may give the impression that you will be asleep while in the dentist chair, but in actuality, you remain conscious during conscious IV sedation. You will also be able to understand and respond to requests from your dentist, but may not remember much because of two things:
IV sedation induces a state of deep relaxation and a feeling of not being bothered by what’s going on the drugs used for IV sedation produce either partial or full memory loss (amnesia) for the period of time when the drug first kicks in until it wears off. As a result, time will appear to pass very quickly, and you will not recall much of what happened. Many people remember nothing at all. So, it may appear as if you were asleep during the procedure.
Schedule an appointment today with cosmetic and general dentist Dr. Simone at (702) 735-2755.
Dr. Simone proudly serves patients from Las Vegas, Henderson, Silverado Ranch, Enterprise, Whitney, Spring Valley and all surrounding areas.