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If you have a history of a traumatic dental appointment, you may have great difficulty dealing with dental care. In some cases, the anxiety level is so high that your body seems to fight off the local anesthetic and you have difficulty getting numb. If that is you, sedation dentistry may be the answer.<\/p>\n
Nitrous oxide is a mild relaxant. During your appointment, you\u2019ll breathe in nitrous oxide (“laughing gas”) to calm you and give you a sense of well-being. However, you’ll be fully aware of everything during the appointment. At the end of your appointment, we’ll give you pure oxygen for a couple of minutes, which will quickly reverse the effects of the gas, and you’ll be able to drive home and return to your normal activities. In Baton Rouge, we offer nitrous oxide only at our Perkins Rd. location.<\/p>\n
While oral conscious sedation doesn’t make you fully asleep, it seems that it does, because you probably won’t remember your appointment. You are conscious, so you can respond to our request to open your mouth, but we will have to help you hold it open. Unlike general anesthesia, your vital functions such as heart rate and breathing are not affected. Protective reflexes such as coughing to clear your airway are still present. The affects also linger after the appointment, so you will have to have someone take you home after the appointment and shouldn’t go back to any normal activities until the medication has completely worn off.<\/p>\n
Oral conscious sedation is administered with an oral medication, usually triazolam, that you take about an hour before your appointment. We offer this service at both of our Baton Rouge locations.<\/p>\n
Dr. Theriot has received advanced post-graduate training in conscious sedation through the Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation (DOCS). This included training in pharmacology, resuscitation, and monitoring vital functions. The state of Louisiana requires that dentists administering conscious sedation obtain what they call a moderate sedation permit, which has educational and clinical requirements. Dr. Theriot has that permit and has many hours of training in this procedure.<\/p>\n
Calms and relaxes you<\/strong> \u2013 You\u2019ll remain calm throughout your visit and probably won’t remember your appointment.<\/p>\n Allows us to accomplish more work<\/strong> – Some patients who don’t have heightened dental anxiety still elect to have conscious sedation because they need extensive complex dental work. Sedation enables you to have a lengthy dental appointment and helps us get much more work done because we can work more quickly.<\/p>\n How you’ll feel <\/strong><\/p>\n You’ll feel so calm and relaxed that dental sights and sounds during your procedure won’t disturb you. You’ll be conscious and able to respond to our questions or directions.<\/p>\n What we’ll do <\/strong><\/p>\nBefore<\/h3>\n
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During<\/h3>\n