IV sedation is a good alternative for patients with dental anxiety. Dr. Becker is highly trained in conscious sedation. He received his training from the University of Southern California and is certified by the State of Ohio to administer IV sedation.
IV sedation is when sedative medications are injected into the bloodstream to help relieve anxiety and feel less discomfort during a dental procedure. During this procedure your blood pressure, pulse and oxygen levels are closely monitored. Conscious sedation is sometimes referred to “twilight sleep” or “sleep dentistry”. These terms are descriptive for deep sedation such as general anesthesia. With conscious sedation you are conscious but you may not remember because conscious sedation puts you into a deep state of relaxation and may produce a partial or full memory loss (amnesia) for the time that you are under the drugs. You regain memory as soon as the drugs start to wear off.
Different drugs are used to achieve this result. Anti-anxiety sedatives such as Midazolam and Diazepam are used to reduce anxiety and relax you. These medications have a short duration of action and work fast. Everyone may require different amounts of these medications in order to receive the proper amount of sedation. Dr. Becker and his highly trained staff closely monitor the amount of drugs given to the individual. Dr. Becker also gives a pain reliever (opioids) through the IV to help minimize pain. The drugs used for IV sedation are only for anti-anxiety. Dr. Becker will give you injections of local anesthetics (“Novocain”) after you have gone under conscious sedation. This way you will be “numb”. This will help with post procedure pain. Dr. Becker will also give you an anti-nausea medication through the IV in order to help with any nausea you may encounter during the procedure.