A wonderful patient came to our office as a referral from some sedation education that she found on our website. She’d been avoiding the dentist for a quite long time. She was in her early 40s and she felt that she could do cleanings and had done cleanings in the past, but anything more than a cleaning she could not do. This was due to anxiety caused by childhood trauma at the dentist’s office. She was like so many other patients that come into our office dealing with anxiety over a previous dental experience. What kind of options did we present to help her overcome her anxiety? Was general anesthesia an option? What was the result?
General Anesthesia As An option
General sedation dentistry is an incredible way to control pain. It offers the deepest level of sedation available, which allows for multiple procedures to be performed in one visit. The application is very, very safe with an ambulatory anesthesia unit used for deployment. It is the same technology in treatment as outpatient or a hospital setting with very low levels of nausea post treatment. Sedation dentistry removes anxiety from the procedures, allowing the patient to remain comfortable thoughout the entire process.
Ready For Treatment
She had done her homework online and saved up what she thought would be her investment in the treatments given the amount of time that she’d spent away from any dentists in Oklahoma City. The really great thing is that we were able to do a lot of different procedures all in 1 visit, while she was under general anesthesia. We did a couple of crowns start to finish, which means that we didn’t have to give her a temporary crown and then bring her back and then put her back under sedation to deliver the crowns. We made the crowns in office while she was under sedation. We also did a few fillings for her and did her initial therapy for her periodontal disease – or gum disease – all in the same session.
Comforting Care Providers Removing All Stress
The entire process was performed at Reflections Dental Care under care providers that she’d already met or talked with before. She had to have a driver bring her to the appointment and take her home, but she reported little to no post-op nausea or discomfort after the procedure. Best of all, she had no stress during the treatment and no memory of the treatment afterwards. Since then, she’s come back to have her maintenance visits without sedation and she’s doing great.
Another General Sedation Dentistry Success Story
Another patient that received multiple procedures during general anesthesia was a 9 year-old young man who had been seeing a pedodontist (child focused dentistry). One of his adult molars had a really large cavity in it and needed a root canal. Since the pedodontist does not do root canals on adult molar teeth, they referred him to our office. His parents had already been coming to see us for years, so we were able to bring in the general anesthesiologist. We put him to sleep to do the root canal treatment along with some other fillings. We also did a temporary crown – what we call a transitional crown on that tooth – which is not the final porcelain crown, but just a plastic crown that will bridge the gap until he’s an adult or gets out of braces. It’s another really great benefit of having multiple procedures done under general anesthesia all under this roof. At Reflections, we’ll keep you comfy.
We offer the full breadth of sedation dentistry at Reflections Dental Care in Oklahoma City. Call 405-751-4556 to set up a consultation or visit backup120517.mystagingwebsite.com for more information. Lance R. Schmidt D.D.S. is the owner/proprietor of Reflections Dental Care. Follow us on Twitter.