Here at West Bowmanville Family Dental, we pride ourselves on ensuring everyone feels comfortable and relaxed during visits, but we realize sometimes this isn’t enough. Some people feel anxious at the mere thought of seeing a dentist and these anxieties and fears can be so extreme that they fail to seek essential dental care.

Why Do People Feel Anxious at Seeing a Dentist?

Dental fears and anxieties can be very deep-seated and may stem from a bad experience during childhood, or sometimes these feelings are passed on from parent to child. If you have a parent who feared dental visits, it could be very difficult for them to talk about dental care positively, instead associating dental care with discomfort or pain. Some people have a fear of needles or a very low pain threshold. Others have a strong gag reflex that makes receiving dental care uncomfortable at best.

Often, people who feel this way will only see a dentist when they have absolutely no other choice, by which time they may be in extreme pain and discomfort and require emergency dental care in Newcastle. Unfortunately, waiting until the pain is severe before seeing a dentist can reinforce negative feelings about dental care.

How Sedation Dentistry Can Help You Feel Comfortable

Sedation dentistry uses sedatives to induce feelings of relaxation and calmness, making it far easier to cope with dental treatment. You might benefit from sedation dentistry if you do experience anxiety, or if you need lengthier treatments to restore dental health and your smile. With sedation dentistry, we can often complete an extensive amount of treatment during a single appointment, which is more convenient for you and will restore dental health more quickly too. We provide two types of dental sedation, each of which is customized to meet your needs, keeping you comfortable and safe.

Oral Conscious Sedation

With oral conscious sedation in Clarington, you are prescribed an oral sedative to take before your visit, so it will have taken effect by the time you sit in the dental chair. Sometimes oral sedation is combined with nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to enhance its calming effects. Laughing gas takes effect extremely quickly and is very safe, and we can adjust the levels of gas provided during treatment, ensuring you continue to feel comfortable the entire time. If oral conscious sedation isn’t quite enough, we also provide intravenous conscious sedation.

Intravenous Conscious Sedation

Intravenous or IV conscious sedation provides a deeper level of sedation and is sometimes called twilight or sleep sedation. You will feel so completely relaxed that you might feel drowsy or will even fall asleep, although we can awaken you easily if necessary. After treatment, you will almost certainly find your memories are hazy, so will most likely remember very little, if anything about your appointment. The sedative is given intravenously and continuously during your treatment, and we will monitor you very closely to ensure you are safe. When you have IV sedation, you will need someone to take you home, and it is best to rest up for the remainder of the day.

No Need to Fear Dental Impressions

West Bowmanville Family Dental is equipped with the most advanced technologies to help us provide a higher level of comfort, and we don’t use conventional tray impressions that can make you gag. Instead, we have a 3D oral scanner in Courtice that is one of the most advanced available, and which uses comfortable digital technology to scan your teeth, creating a perfect and far more accurate duplicate of your mouth, so restorations fit more precisely.

We take our patients’ comfort very seriously and do everything possible to ensure your visits are stress-free and most importantly pain-free.