Hi, I’m Dr Fong, the founder and principal dentist here at Dental House Group in Melbourne.
One of our favourite patients, Linda from Sunbury, will be having a full mouth reconstruction with all on 4 dental implants in a couple of weeks time. It is a complex dental procedure and naturally she felt a bit nervous. She asked me, “Hey Fong, what are the different types of sleep dentistry available?”
I thought, what a great question, and felt I should make a video about it for other patients who may need multiple dental procedures, or for those who have dental anxiety.
Sleep dentistry might sometimes be called sedation dentistry, and the term is often used interchangeably. This is great for patients who need complicated or multiple dental procedures, and helps those with dental fears or phobias. It is a popular option because you can be very relaxed, or even completely asleep during your treatment and then when you wake up, it’s all done.
There are different types of sleep dentistry and each patient or treatment requires a different level of sedation.
Sometimes we provide oral medications that patients can take an hour before the dental procedure.
For some patients, we offer happy gas, or nitrous oxide, which is a lighter type of sedation because you don’t actually go to sleep and once your treatment is over, it wears off very quickly. We can adjust the gas and oxygen to ensure the levels are suitable for your age and size. When your dental procedure is over, we simply turn off the gas and remove the mask and it will wear off within minutes.
For complicated treatments or severe anxiety, the patient may prefer to have an anaesthetist for general anaesthetic, also called true sleep dentistry.
Often it has to be performed at a hospital. However, with the mobile equipment our anaesthetist uses, we now offer this for our patients conveniently at our practices.
The great thing with GA is that you will be fully asleep, and you will not remember the treatment at all.
So, let’s go over the different types again, very quickly. There are oral sedations we can prescribe for you, nitrous oxide, also known as happy gas, and twilight or IV sedation and General Anaesthetic which requires a specialist anaesthetist during the surgery.
I hope this gives you a better idea about the different types of sleep dentistry. If you have dental anxiety, or need to get a lot of work done, we can definitely look after you.
Here at Dental House, we are known as the most gentle dentists in Melbourne, so you are in safe hands.
Simply give us a call on 1800 467 526, fill in the form on our website, or DM us on social media, and our friendly team will help you organise your consultation.
