What Does Sedation Dentistry Feel Like?

When you need major work done on your teeth that might be too painful to bear with local anesthesia alone, it isn’t uncommon for dentists to prescribe a technique called sedation dentistry to help you feel at ease during your procedure. In simple terms, sedation dentistry is putting a patient to sleep so that pain and discomfort cannot be felt.

In actuality, however, you won’t be sleeping per se throughout a procedure where sedation is administered. In many cases, patients are only sedated lightly, so that they can easily be woken during the treatment (to receive instructions from the dentist) and after it (so they can be on their way much quicker).

Patients might sometimes feel apprehensive about the fact that sedation dentistry doesn’t put them into complete sleep. Some fear that they might still feel pain with the lighter sedation. However, the overwhelming majority of patients can attest to the fact that their procedures were completely pain-free while under sedation.

In fact, many dentists can tell you that snoring is a relatively common occurrence in sedation dentistry. This is often touted as proof of just how comfortable patients are throughout otherwise painful procedures.

If your dentist has advised that you might need sedation dentistry, talking to them about your anxiety over the procedure can help. Dentists can fill you in on the process they will use, as well as on experiences patients have had with them in the past so you can feel at ease about the entire occasion.