Sedation Dentistry
We offer both Nitrous Oxide Sedation (laughing gas) and IV General Anesthesia.
Nitrous Oxide Sedation
Conscious sedation. Your child will be awake during the procedure. Nitrous oxide does several things:
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It serves as an anxiolytic lessening anxiety. It sometimes makes an individual so relaxed that sometimes they start laughing (giving it the name laughing gas).
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It serves as an analgesic relieving pain. It acts like Tylenol or Ibuprofen dulling our senses to pain.
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It alters our sensation of time. For example, it can make a 30 minute procedure feel like a 15 minute procedure. This is particularity important since children have short working times where they want to behave and cooperate.
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Nitrous is clinically proven to help relieve patients from an exaggerated gag reflex.
IV General Anesthesia
Although most children are cooperative enough to complete their treatment while awake, some children need to be completely sedated to provide safe and effective care to them. The main reason our office would recommend IV General Anesthesia depends on the complexity of a child's treatment needs and the level of cooperativity of that particular child.
Safety is our upmost concern. At SVPDO we aim to safely treat every child without physical or emotional trauma. As pediatric dentists, we try our hardest to cultivate a lifetime of trauma-free oral health.
If you decide to perform sedation dentistry, a dedicated anesthesiologist would sedate your child your dentists performs dental care on your child. During every IV General Anesthesia, there would be two doctors (Anesthesiologist and Pediatric Dentist) in the room with extensive anesthesia and pediatric medicine experience along with a pediatric registered dental assistant caring for your child while he/she is sleeping.
It is the Pediatric Dentist's advanced training in Pediatric Medicine and Pediatric Anesthesia to safely perform conscious and deep sedation that differentiates him/her from a general dentist or a "Children's Dentist".
Only a Board Certified Pediatric Dentist should perform sedation procedures. All of our doctors who perform anesthesia are a Board Certified Anesthesiologist and a Board Certified Pediatric Dentist.