Improving Your Dental Care

Sedation May Impact Your Dental Implant Procedure

Oral healthcare professionals work incredibly hard to keep every patient safe and comfortable. For this reason, and since all people have different pain tolerance levels, dental implant procedures are offered with sedation. While this pain-minimizing practice is safe, there are some factors you may want to keep in mind. 

Need to Choose an Option

Fortunately, there are several sedation methods that can be used during an implant procedure. So, finding a method that best meets your need is quite easy. If you are someone who is not affected by the sounds of drills and other tools being used in your mouth and have little concern about pain management beyond the local anesthetic that is used around the implant site, nitrous oxide is an option. 

Nitrous oxide is commonly referred to as laughing glass. This gas will keep you awake during the entire procedure, but it does help block the pain receptors and to a degree, make you slightly less aware of everything going on around you. If you are uneasy with the process overall or you have a low threshold for pain, IV sedation is an option. 

Sedation will cause you to sleep throughout the duration of the procedure and can only be administered by an anesthesiologist. Keep in mind; you generally need to choose your method before the day of the procedure.  

Visit Time May Increase

How long a dental implant procedure lasts will vary widely based on the number of missing teeth the individual is planning to have replaced since an implant must be installed in each individual tooth space. However, on average, you should plan for at least a few hours if there are multiple implants that need to be inserted. Should you settle on a sedation option to help manage your pain, it is wise to account for a little extra time.

One reason is that before the sedation can be administered, the dental healthcare team will need to collect some general health information from you. Certain conditions cause certain risks with sedation medication, and the overall goal is to keep you safe, so this information is important.

Second, for people with certain medical conditions, such as high blood pressure, the dosage of the IV sedation may need to be administered in increments over time, as to not cause a reaction with the medication that can spike blood pressure. As you might imagine, this requirement could extend the procedure time. 

As you plan your treatment, it is a good time to also speak with your oral health professional to learn more about the available sedation options if you are concerned about pain during your procedure. You can also discuss the dental implant procedure more in-depth with a dentist. 


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