If you have claustrophobia, you avoid cave exploration. If you have acrophobia (fear of heights), you avoid sky diving. In either case, you can live a fulfilling life without joining in these activities.
What if you have dentophobia or a fear of the dentist? (Yes, it’s a real thing with an official name.) This is different than the phobias mentioned previously. Since dental visits are crucial for a healthy mouth, it’s not wise to simply avoid dental treatment.
Yet many individuals try to do just that. That is until they have a problem that gets so painful they are impelled to white knuckle it through a dental visit. At that point, the treatment may be an extraction that could have been prevented with earlier intervention or preventative procedures.
If you experience severe anxiety when undergoing dental treatment, oral sedation is for you. Whether it is called relaxation dentistry, oral conscious sedation, sleep dentistry, or anxiety-free dentistry, it has proven to be safe and effective.
Dentophobia is complex and may be accompanied by any of the following:
- Teeth sensitivity
- Fear of needles
- An uncontrollable gag reflex
- Difficulty in controlling body movement
- Difficulty becoming numb with normal injections
With oral conscious sedation dentistry patients can relax or even sleep through dental treatment.
You choose the degree of sedation needed:
- Mild sedation: relaxes you while you remain conscious.
- Moderate sedation: provides a deeper level of relaxation with partial consciousness.
- Deep sedation: you are almost completely unconscious but can be awakened.
- General anesthesia: this sends you to dreamland from which you awake after it’s over with no memory of the procedure.
For more information on oral sedation dentistry, contact us at 303-858-9000.
Contact Almeida & Bell Cosmetic, Implant & Sedation Dentistry:
303-858-9000
Locations (Tap to open in Google Maps):
Almeida & Bell Dental – Lone Tree
8683 E Lincoln Ave Ste 200
Lone Tree, Colorado
80124
Almeida & Bell Dental – Denver
9126 57th Ave.
Denver, Colorado
80238
