Anxiety Management

Let's face it, no matter how hard we try, there are always patients who suffer from pre-existing phobia of the dental chair. While our comfortable atmosphere and gentle approach to dentistry can often help patients overcome those fears over time, we do also offer a range of options for patients who need that little extra help.

Expressing your concerns to Doctor Hosseini is a first step toward selecting one of several options available to you. We have a range of options available to us, depending on the patient's degree of anxiety. These range from mild and short lasting, such as Nitrous Oxide, to more thorough procedure such as Oral Sedation

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous Oxide, or laughing gas, is considered a light form of dental sedation. It is a gas that is administered through a mask placed over your nose. The gas is inhaled through the nose and expelled through the mouth. When the procedure is over, the nitrous oxide wears off almost immediately with minimal to no side effects or recovery time.

With this option, patients are able to drive after the procedure.

Anxiolysis

This form of sedation involves administering anti-anxiety medication one hour prior to the dental appointment. The degree of relaxation provided by this option is more extensive than that provided by Nitrous Oxide, and as such, is usually selected for patients who suffer a significant degree of anxiety.

Due to the lasting effects of the medication, patients are required to be accompanied by a driver to and from the appointment. We will not perform any sedation procedure without an accompanying driver.

Oral Conscious Sedation

Benefits

With oral sedation, patients are provided medication especially designed to relax and also to block pain. The patient's vitals are continuously monitored, and while the patient is technically conscious, he or she may not be able to speak and will generally not remember anything about the procedure.

We advise oral sedation for patients who, for whatever reason, have a significant degree of phobia associated with dentistry, sometimes to the extent that they may have neglected their dental care for years. We feel that the health risks associated with poor dental hygiene far outweigh any risks associated with sedation. Besides, we often find that many of these patients do not require sedation in subsequent visits to our office!

A second category of patients to whom we may offer Oral Sedation are those patients with a significant amount of treatment they'd like to complete, but do not have the time for multiple appointments. With Oral Sedation, we can often compete an entire treatment plan in a single visit that may take a few hours.

Please note, however, that we never perform any sedation procedure without a driver accompanying the patient.