I’m not sure how widespread this is in other areas, but in the DC area there are a number of commercials for one or more people practicing “Sedation Dentistry”.
A search on QuackWatch/Dental Watch and google hasn’t turned up much in the way of people saying that these people are frauds/dangerous/etc.
I, for one, really hate going to the dentist. I figure if they can sedate me while they do their thing, that’s the way to go.
Has anyone actually been to one of these guys? I’d like a first hand account or two.
And if there’s a Dentist floating around on the boards, I would welcome their insights as well.
I’m also interested in this. I am rather overdue for a checkup, and if any cavities or the like are found, I would much rather just go to sleep, and wake up all fixed up.
If you are having teeth drilled, most dentists will use nitrous oxide if reqested; I have had this done. You don’t actually lose consciousness, but you are very out of it, and you really don’t care what he does to you. Once he turns off the nitrous, you come around quite quickly, a few minutes, and you are ready to leave.
Are they talking general anaesthesia? Given my experience with wisdom-teeth removal, you wouldn’t be able to drive yourself home. Which seems like a major disadvantage.
Plus there’s a small chance you’ll die. Which a normal cleaning visit lacks.
At times you feel like you WANT to die… does that count to make it acceptable?
I have had a hard time visiting the dentist for that same reason… I have some inexplicable paranoia about it. Well, maybe not inexplicable, considering several dental screwups in my youth. As such, I’ve been putting off visiting the dentist and favored going overboard on self-dental care. I’m amazed I haven’t burned off my tongue with mouth washes yet. But even with nitrous, I can’t make the visit…
So I’m kinda curious about this myself… I hope one of you lot comes up with a decent answer.
In the commercials, it doesn’t sound like general anaesteshia, they make reference to “swalling a small pill”… I’d assume it’s something like valium. Although, upon saying that, I think I’ll go look at a website and see what THEY say
I used to fill prescriptions at a pharmacy, and there was a dentist in the area that would write people 30 day prescriptions for benzos for a simple dental appt. because of “stress”.
I had IV Valium, and nitrous oxide when I had my wisdom teeth removed. (all four of them at once.) I took a cab home. (Well, both ways, actually, figuring that I shouldn’t leave my car at the dentists.) I never lost consciousness. I laid there having mildly erotic thoughts about the dental assistant, and pretty much ignored everything else. After a while, the dentist said here, take this. I took a big whompin capsule. He told me I could take one every six hours if I wanted to, and gave me twelve of them. They were Tylox. (Tylenol with synthetic morphine.) I slept for most of two days, and felt like a sponge the rest of time. It didn’t hurt, though.
I’m having a hard time finding a cite, but anesthesia is not the same as sedation. Sedation calms you down while anesthesia numbs the nerves. At least that’s my simple explanation.
I just got 3 teeth pulled recently and was given a prescription for Triazolam to take before the procedure. The description says its usually used to treat sleep disorders, so I assume its a sedative. It was good in that it wasn’t too powerful, but it still made me able to tolerate the operation.
If you use a dentist that advertises ‘sedation dentistry,’ check with organizations that regulate dentistry in your area to make sure they aren’t ‘quacks.’
I had a whole heap of things done including wisdom tooth removal while sedated. I wasn’t unconcious even though the drug was administered by an anaesthetist. It was like some super Valium, I lay there having all these horrible things done and was aware of what was going on but just didn’t care. After it was done it felt like it had taken 10 minutes but it was over an hour. I felt like I could have driven home but I had arranged transport like I was told.
Nitrous really does make you not care. Hell, I had it for a root canal when I was around 12 and actually watched him “work” on the bad tooth in the reflection in his glasses.(That’s how relaxed I was and I’m a horrible patient.) One question, are they really going to knock you out or just make you not remember it? When I had a bunch of teeth removed my oral surgeon gave me demerol and vallium through an IV. I don’t remember it but I understand I was never actually knocked out.
I went to a sedation dentist, but I could not afford the sedation. It was $250.00. They recommended that I take a valium before my visit instead of opting for the full sedations, seeing as how I was on a budget. It wouldn’t make me lose track of time or put me out as much as the full treatment would, but it would calm me down.
I have taken Xanax before a root canal. That worked wonders. I was definately zonked out of my head, but I didn’t mind the work they were doing on me at all. I rememer thinking that the vibrations of the drill were pretty cool. Xanax is a pretty scary drug, but in my situation it was the best thing possible.
I am extremely, extremely scared of dentists. Even going in for X-rays reduce me to tears. Heck, I’ve gone to the dentist’s office just to schedule an appointment and left bawling. The biggest advantage that sedation dentistry would offer me is that they can do everything in one visit. I’m known to go to the first visit and then never come back. It’s really hurt my dental health. I wish I could afford sedation dentistry, as I am looking at having a lot of work done, and bad things are going to happen in my mouth if I don’t get all these prblems taken care of.
I’m in a sorta-but-not-quite-similar position. For my first 27 or 28 years, I had very poor dental hygiene. By the time I wised up and started trying to take care of my teeth, it was too late - I would brush them, and I would wind up with pieces of enamel in my tooth brush. I knew they needed to be fixed, but I wasn’t scared to go to the dentist, however, I was too poor. I could in no way at the time afford dental care - my job at the time did not allow me to make enough to support my wife, and keep a dental plan, and pay even the minimal costs to fixing my teeth. Now my teeth are decimated. I have lost a couple, and the enamel is missing from about 3/4 of the rest leaving that flexible sheathing around the pulp exposed - every single tooth has at least one gum-level cavity, and I continually have a low level pain in different parts of my jawbone all the time. I really want to get my teeth fixed this year, but I don’t respond well to novacaine/lidocaine/etc (I had to have one of my teeth removed in an emergency a couple of years ago - they went through 4 ampoules of Lidocaine and I still wasn’t completely numb). Not only that, the shots in the roof and sides of the mouth are so painful to me - when I get the roof shots it literally feels like someone has shoved a very large, sharp rod up through my brain and out of the top of my skulll. I hear sedation therapy and think - “take a pill, breathe some gas, pull all my teeth, done. Wait a few days, get fitted for false teeth, no more pain, done”. However, my wife thinks (and I respect her knowledge in this area), that I am at a severe risk of bleeding out on the table if I were to have that done (I want to be anesthetised/sedated and have all my rotten teeth removed at once).
I’m trying to decide what to do. I want to get my teeth fixed, but I don’t want to deal with 22 root canals (wouldn’t surprise me, seriously, if that’s how many abcesses I have), plus any number of attempts to fill/cap the rest of my teeth.
What are the issues given my situation, and would I be good for sedation/anesthetization (sp?) therapies?
