Sedation Dentistry For Nervous Patients In Greenwich
Helping you to relax during your treatment at the Confidental Clinic.
Dental anxiety is very common. In fact, it even has its own name ‘odontophobia’.
With around half of the population of the UK considered to be afraid of visiting the dentist, and around 10% of these suffering from more extreme versions of it, it is perhaps not surprising that some people avoid seeing a dentist altogether.
Avoiding regular visits to the dentist however, is to take a ‘head in the sand’ approach to your oral health care. The fact is that, with a reasonable diet and good home cleaning, most dental problems that arise should be relatively minor. Small areas of dental decay can easily be filled but, if left and dental visits avoided, by the time that you have a toothache that forces you to make an emergency appointment, the damage is likely to be much more severe and may result in a much larger filling, or possibly even an extraction.
Sedation
At the Confidental Clinic, your local dentist in Greenwich, our staff are fully trained and aware of dental anxiety, and we will always do what we can to help you to relax during your visits. For relatively minor procedures, such as a filling, many patients do manage to simply face their fears and have the procedure. For procedures that take longer though, such as a dental implant placement, it may be worth considering IV sedation which we offer to our patients from South East London.
This involves the administering of a mild sedative into the back of the patient’s hand. Whilst this is sometimes referred to as ‘sleep dentistry’, the reality is that you will not go to sleep but will remain conscious throughout the procedure. This is important as we may need to ask you questions during the procedure from time to time.
The sedative does, however, have an extremely calming effect and any anxiety that you may have about your treatment will just drift away leaving you totally relaxed. Many patients also tell us that time seems to fly using IV sedation and a procedure that lasts for an hour seems to be over in just a minute or so.
Bring a friend
The effects of sedation can stay in your system for 24 hours or so and it is very important that you do not drive or operate machinery for a while afterwards until it has left your system. Even using public transport or walking may be difficult, at least initially, and we ask that you bring an adult with you to help you to get home safely.
If you would like to find out more about the sedation dentistry that we offer at our Greenwich practice, or if you are a nervous patient who hasn’t seen a dentist for some time, why not give the Confidental Clinic a call on 020 8858 1422.