Sedation & Nervous Patients

Don’t let fear stand in the way of getting the dental care you need. We understand that some of our patients experience dental anxiety. It’s okay, we have options to make your visit to our practice more comfortable.

Tell Us How You Feel About the Dentist

At Hutton Village Dental Practice, our patient needs and comfort are our biggest priorities. If you are a new patient, please let us know if you are nervous, uncomfortable or afraid of visiting the dentist. We always do everything we can to be mindful of how you’re feeling, so please tell us how we can make your experience better. If it makes you more comfortable to visit our office before your appointment, please come by and chat with our friendly team.

Tips to Ease Your Dental Phobia

We try to be accommodating to all of our patients’ needs.

Our waiting area is set up for patient comfort and our welcoming staff treats each of our patients like a friend. As your friend, we would like to offer you some tips on how to have a successful visit (even with a fear of the dentist!):
  • Pick an early appointment time. When you start your day with a visit to the dentist, you have less time to dwell on it and get nervous for your upcoming appointment.
  • Ask questions. Information is powerful and facts can help make dental work seem less intimidating.
  • Bring a friend. Sometimes it’s nice to have somebody there to support you and make you feel more confident.
  • Listen to music. If it helps you to pop in your earbuds and listen to music that mentally takes you to your happy place, we encourage it.
  • Gradually start treatments. Baby steps are key when establishing a relationship with a new dentist. Start with a simple cleaning, and we’ll ease into other services as needed.
  • Ask us about numbing gels or sedation. We have options for our nervous patients to match their level of comfort during dental treatments.
Dentist

Conscious Sedation at Hutton Village Dental Practice

Our dental practice has a highly experienced team able to provide conscious sedation to help especially anxious patients. 

Conscious Sedation can help patients to continue with receiving a high quality of general dentistry treatment that otherwise they might be too anxious to go ahead with elsewhere.

For some patients, Conscious Sedation may be useful to make more advanced or complex procedures more manageable.

Over time as patients’ confidence grows in receiving dental treatment, patients who might have been previously very anxious, may feel they able to have some dental treatments without sedation, knowing there is still the option for sedation for more involved procedures.

Sedation is an advanced technique where we administer a sedative, typically through an intravenous (IV) cannula. Sedation is tailored to your dental needs and safety, in order to calm and relax you so that we can complete your dental treatment to a high standard.

For patients under Conscious Sedation, they still maintain their vital and responsive reflexes, such as breathing, swallowing or coughing. 

During the procedure you will feel more relaxed making treatment much more manageable and comfortable. IV Conscious Sedation can cause some short term amnesia as a side effect which helps some patients to forget the procedure.

We wait until you are relaxed and comfortably sedated before starting the dental procedure and we will still numb up your mouth for treatment where needed.

Our practice has a great tradition in the provision of conscious sedation for nervous patients. Our general dentists are experienced in sedating and caring for sedation patients and our team regularly completes sedation-specific training sessions to strengthen our skills so we can provide you with a safe and successful experience.

Dentist

Benefits of Conscious Sedation

Conscious sedation has many benefits for our patients.
  • IV sedation works quickly in a matter of minutes allowing the dental team to continue with your care and treatment
  • Sedation significantly reduces patient anxiety helping you to complete your dental treatment needs
  • Our sedationists can tailor the sedation to your dental needs to help the dental team complete your treatment effectively and safely whilst helping you to remain relaxed
  • Complex or multiple procedures can be completed more efficiently once we know your dental anxieties are well cared for and you are more relaxed
  • Once we have helped care and manage for your dental anxiety, the dental team can continue with providing a high quality of treatment for your dental health.
  • Due to some forgetfulness and being in a relaxed state, dental treatment visits can seem a lot quicker 

Considerations for Conscious Sedation

Before we can proceed with your Conscious Sedation appointment please take the following into consideration:
  • Please provide our dental team with an up to date and complete medical history
  • For the majority of cases, an initial dental consultation would always be required on a separate day to your conscious sedation procedure
  • Consultation appointments allow us to effectively assess your case and dental health needs, and have an open discussion with patients on planning their dental treatment
  • This gives patients the opportunity to ask questions, fully understand their treatment options, and time to reflect on their dental treatment recommendations before proceeding
  • Conscious Sedation is a safe, medical procedure, so patients will be unable to drive for 24 hours afterwards
  • A responsible accompanying adult will need to be present for the duration of the Conscious Sedation appointment, to help the patient get home, and to remember important aftercare instructions.
  • Please consider if you, the patient, have any children/vulnerable persons requiring care at home, that an additional responsible person is available to provide this care whilst you are unable due to the sedation effects wearing off.
Dentist

Questions about Dental Sedation? Let Us Know

We’re an open book. If you have questions or concerns about sedation during your dental treatment, we would love the opportunity to talk with you about it. Give us a call or book an appointment with us today.