The medications used for oral sedation are called benzodiazepines. Doctors normally prescribe these drugs for anxiety & panic disorders, which makes them very useful for patients who experience fear in the dental chair.
With oral conscious sedation, your dentist gives you sedative medication (usually in pill form) about an hour before your procedure begins. Most dentists use triazolam (Halcion®), which is in the diazepam (Valium®) family. But your dentist might use other medications, too, including zaleplon and lorazepam.
This is one of the most common forms of sedation used. The medications are usually midazolam and fentanyl – a mild sedative and a pain killer. This is a nice, safe combination, and usually causes amnesia for the procedure.
One of the key features of any type of sedation dentistry is pain prevention. You won't feel pain under oral conscious sedation, although that doesn't mean you won't feel anything at all. However, any minor discomfort you might feel will be easy to forget thanks to the relaxing effect of the sedation.
The most commonly prescribed dental related drugs that treat anxiety belong to the “benzodiazepine” family. Drugs such as Valium, Halcion, Xanax, or Ativan. These drugs decrease anxiety by binding and toning down activity within “fear” receptors in the brain.
Oral anxiety relieving (anxiolytic) medications (such as temazepam) are sometimes prescribed by dentists or doctors to help anxious patients relax. A short-acting, small, single dose is usually taken one hour before the dental appointment.
Another form of sedation that dentists use is oral sedation. This is when the patient is administered a pill to keep them calm. Unlike nitrous oxide, the effects of these pills last much longer than just a few minutes. They can last from at least two to eight hours.
Oral sedation may make you drowsy enough to fall asleep. But we'll be able to easily shake you awake if we need you to cooperate with the dentist. For example, Dr. Yun may ask you during the procedure to tilt your head so he can better access a tooth.
Oral Sedatives
It is taken by mouth or through the nose. This type of medicine will make your child a little drowsy, and will keep him or her relaxed and calm during the procedure. The medicine usually begins to work within 20 minutes.
So, patients undergoing dental sedation often feel calm, relaxed, and somewhat groggy. The stress and anxiety of the dental procedure fade away. Of course, the extent of this feeling varies greatly depending on the type of sedation, how much is needed, and even the patient themselves.
In general, dental sedation is perfectly safe for the vast majority of patients. It's normal to feel unsure about a medication or procedure you've never experienced, so it's important to ask questions.
Propofol, etomidate, and ketamine are the intravenous (IV) sedative-hypnotic agents commonly used to induce general anesthesia (table 1), while adjuvant agents (eg, opioids, lidocaine, midazolam, and volatile anesthetics) are often used to supplement the effects of the primary sedative-hypnotic induction agent (table 2 ...
You'll be given local anesthesia shortly before your procedure to give it time to start working. This usually only takes a few minutes. While you shouldn't feel any pain, you might still feel sensations of pressure.
You'll feel giddy and might say silly things. You'll probably get the giggles and feel a bit tipsy. Your memory might be a little foggy afterwards.
Unlike general anesthesia that renders a patient completely unconscious, the prescription drugs used for sedation dentistry only calm and relax a patient without making them sleep. To put it simply, sedation dentistry is the painless way to receive a dental procedure.
Oral sedation has minimal side effects. These side effects may include drowsiness, dry mouth, headache, and fogginess or loss of memory of the dental procedure. These minor side effects usually resolve within a few hours, and, for most people, the benefits of oral sedation dentistry far outweighs these side effects.
Sedation dentistry can relax you and ease your pain, but the sedatives could also put more of a hurting on your wallet than other types of dental procedures. Check with your insurance to see whether they will cover sedation during your procedures. Even if you do have to pay out of pocket, the trade-off can be worth it.
IV sedation works quickly, with most people falling asleep in roughly 15 to 30 minutes after it's been administered. Once the IV sedation is removed, you will begin to wake up in about 20 minutes and be fully recovered from all sedative effects within six hours.
The patient was informed that the dose of diazepam should not exceed 5–10 mg and should be taken 1 h before treatment. To measure the dental fear, we used Kleintnecht's Dental Fear Survey (DFS) at every visit.
Anxiety Medications Used for Sedation Dentistry
In this type of sedation, valium or Xanax are sometimes given the night before the procedure (such as the root canal procedure). Then, about an hour before the visit a Halcion is taken.
During routine dental examinations and cleanings, dentists can detect oral symptoms of stress, including orofacial pain, bruxism, temporomandibular disorders (TMJ), mouth sores and gum disease. If you're feeling tense or anxious, you should keep a watchful eye for signs of the following stress-related disorders.
Others may find the noise of the drills and tooth scraping to be unnerving. Some adults fear the unknown and are wary of unfamiliar procedures. It's also common for patients to be afraid of feeling trapped and may experience panic attacks because of claustrophobia.
The most commonly prescribed sedatives are benzodiazepines [2], which are similar to alcohol in that they facilitate the inhibitory effects of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at the GABA-A receptor complex, primarily by binding non-selectively to the benzodiazepine subtype 1 (BZ1) and BZ2 receptors.
Midazolam is the fastest acting of its class because of its lipophilic abilities, and it is superior to lorazepam and diazepam in its amnestic effects, making it the ideal benzodiazepine for use in short ED procedures.