Services
Pediatric Sedation Dentistry
Children’s dental health is a key factor in the overall growth and health of the Child. A healthy mouth makes a healthier, happier child. Unfortunately, anxiety, for even simple procedures, can pose obstacles in helping your child(ren) reach their healthiest potential. At Carolina Dental Docs, we have pediatric sedation available to help calm anxiety and make your child’s experience a more positive and rewarding experience.
What Are The Benefits Of Pediatric Sedation?
- Helps your child relax and helps to relieve most anxiety.
- Helps your child receive a higher quality of dental procedures. When your child can be more relaxed and have less movement, our dentists are able to treat more teeth quicker and with better precision.
- Your child’s dentist will work with you and explain the best treatment and the best form of sedation that would work for your child.
What Type Of Sedation Is Right For Your Child’s Dental Care?
Every child has their own anxieties, abilities, and needs. There are different levels of sedation offered in Pediatric Dentistry. Not every child responds the same way to the different types of sedation. Your Child’s dentist will examine your child’s teeth visually and with x-rays. Sometimes even a simple procedure like x-rays are too difficult without sedation. In addition to evaluating your child’s dental needs during this exam, your Child’s dentist is also evaluating their mood, their level of anxiety, and their ability in that moment to follow instructions. Based on this observation, your Child’s dentist will make a recommendation on what type of sedation your child would need.
There Are Various Levels Or Methods For Pediatric Sedation:
Inhalation sedation: Some patients can tolerate their dental appointment by breathing nitrous oxide and oxygen only (commonly known as laughing gas). This is a lighter level of sedation involving your child breathing a gas which usually puts them in a less anxious state and produce a state of mind that is somewhat blissful or euphoric. Laughing gas is delivered via a mask placed over the patient’s nose. The benefit of laughing gas it works quickly and wears off quickly. After your child’s procedure, they will breathe oxygen for several minutes through the mask to clear the laughing gas from their system. They can resume most activities after breathing laughing gas.
Conscious Oral Sedation: Oral sedation is a little deeper level of sedation administered to the patient by drinking a liquid medication. This does not put your child to sleep but puts them in a much more relaxed state to help provide them the best opportunity to remain still for longer periods of time; thus, allowing the dentist to complete more procedures in a shorter period of time and with less visits. Our staff and dentist will give all parents clear instructions about how they can be successful in a supportive roll to help their child reach optimum oral health in the safest manner. This generally includes diet restrictions before the appointment and what to expect after the appointment. Activities are limited after using oral sedation medications so they will need you for the remainder of the day to help them have a speedier recovery.
IV Sedation: In some cases, the level of sedation needs to be increased further due to many factors such as, but not limited to, the amount and severity of the procedures, intolerance to lower levels of sedation, or special needs making it difficult for patients to remain still and have successful dental work. Your Child’s dentist works closely with a specially trained Doctor who administered the medication through an IV. This is not the same thing as general anesthesia. Many factors go into making the determination if this is the need for your child. As with oral sedation, there are strict dietary and activity restrictions that MUST be followed for the safety of your child before, during, and after the procedures.