If you’re someone who is a little bit anxious at the dentist’s office, and who neglects their oral hygiene as a result, sedation dentistry can be incredibly useful. Nitrous oxide sedation is fast, safe, and incredibly effective at helping patients feel at ease.
However, these sedatives don’t do you any good if the prospect of nitrous oxide itself makes you anxious. Part of this can come from a lack of knowledge about what to expect from this treatment. To help you, here’s some information about what nitrous oxide feels like, and what you can expect during sedation.
What Does Nitrous Oxide Feel Like?
There are several different sedatives used in dentistry, but among them, nitrous oxide tends to be the mildest. While it’s perfectly capable of keeping you relaxed during your treatment, it doesn’t make you feel groggy or “heavy” in the way you might associate with some sedatives.
Instead, as the name “laughing gas” would suggest, the sedative helps patients feel light and bubbly through the duration of their procedure. They might start giggling spontaneously and could experience a slight tingling in their limbs in response to the procedure.
How Fast Does Nitrous Oxide Wear Off?
Nitrous oxide sedation is administered via gas, a steady stream of which is fed through a mask throughout the duration of the procedure. Once the flow of gas stops, the effects of the sedative should fade fairly quickly; you should feel back to normal within five minutes or so.
Is Nitrous Oxide Safe?
The fact that nitrous oxide is a gas means that the precise dosage of sedative that the patient is receiving can be closely monitored. This means that the dentist can adjust the dose to you, ensuring both its safety and its efficacy. As a result, nitrous oxide is an incredibly low-risk sedative. In fact, this method of sedation can even be used for children!
Hopefully, this information has demonstrated to you that nitrous oxide is nothing to be afraid of. Next time you visit your dentist, you’ll have a new tool you can use to defeat your dental anxiety.
About Our Practice
At Southlake Family Dentistry, we believe that dentistry needs to be more than just efficient—it ought to be as comfortable as possible. For that reason, we make it a point to help the patients that we see feel at ease from the moment that they step into our office, in addition to making our care as quick and effective as it can be. No matter what brings you to our practice, we can promise that you’ll be at the center of everything that we do.
If you have any questions about nitrous oxide, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (803) 548-3342.