Conscious Sedation

If you are afraid of the dentist so much that you break out in a cold sweat at the very thought of entering the waiting room, don’t worry, you really are not the only one. It is quite clear that good oral health is an imperative for overall health and it is necessary to find a solution to your fear – and it exists and is called conscious sedation.

Millions of frightened people around the world avoid going to the dentist, and research says that every tenth person copes with this problem. People are afraid of pain, needles, they are afraid of feelings of helplessness and lack of control, and in the end, when their teeth fail, the fear is intensified by discomfort and shame.

However, this should not and should not be the case because poor oral health can endanger the health of our entire body. In addition to the fact that harmful bacteria cause caries, gum disease, pain, chewing and speech problems, impair the quality of life, they can spread through the bloodstream throughout the body and contribute to the development of systemic diseases, including heart and lung infections.

The fear of dentists is present among all generations, so it is wrong to believe that only children have the right to it. In doing so, we distinguish between dental anxiety, dental fear and dental phobia, which is by far the most intense feeling of fear. Dentalophobics will do everything to avoid meeting the dentist because they simply cannot and do not know how to deal with their fear. Their fear is not rational, that is, it is not caused by the anticipation of pain or discomfort – the mere presence of a dentist or the sight of instruments is enough to cause sweating, rapid breathing, rapid pulse, trembling, suffocation and other symptoms of extreme fear.

Such patients must be approached with special care, attention and understanding, with an emphasis on informing the patient well and creating a sense of trust. Of course, the fact that the feeling of fear will not disappear even when the patient agrees to treatment is also taken into account, so everything is done to minimize the number of arrivals. Thanks to conscious sedation and careful planning of the procedure, this is indeed feasible today.

Conscious sedation is performed using drugs that are administered intravenously before the procedure itself and whose application continues throughout the procedure, all under the watchful eye of a licensed specialist anesthesiologist.

The patient is awake all the time and can communicate with the dentist, but does not experience discomfort, does not have a sense of fear, is unaware of the passage of time and pain. At the end of the procedure, he usually does not even remember anything.

Sedation is intended for larger and more difficult procedures in the oral cavity that last longer than 20 minutes and in which it is very important that the patient is at rest. However, it is also recommended for people who show extreme fear even when it comes to minor procedures.