Sedation Dentistry – The best ever
by GrahamDee
For those interested, this was my experience of my last IV Sedation.
Basically, I had a tooth fracture. Lower Left Number 5 split in half and I went to my regular dentist to have it checked out. It’s broke and it has to come out.
Normally, I would freak at this point. This is the stuff of my worst ever nightmares, or at least it used to be.
But I have had two experiences of IV Sedation, which has now turned my world of dentistry around, and I am more than happy to pay whatever to have it out the ‘easy’ way, with the help of some very serious drugs. So my dentist, knowing what an extraction-phobe I am, asked me if I want a referral to a sedation dentist like last time.
I wanted a little bit of time to arrange this and get some personal stuff out the way before going ahead with this, and the dentist did give me a temporary filling just to hold it together… but then the thing totally broke away and left a stump. It wasn’t painful, just weird. OK – time to get this sorted.
I phoned up and made an appointment. A few days later I was there.
This was the easy part. Fill out the forms, pay the money, walk through to the surgery, quickly get weighed and jump in the chair. I was the first one in, and there was no waiting around or anticipation. He took an x-ray just to have a look at the tooth whilst it was being developed. A blood pressure cuff on my right arm and a cannula was put in the back of my right hand. It was just a tiny little pinch. All the time he was chatting away, and I was ‘anxious’ but not ‘a hopeless mess’ like last time. In fact, I was almost looking forward to it.
The first syringe was full of sterile water, I guess that was just to make sure the cannula was ‘in’ and then when everything was ready, he asked me if I was “ready for the good stuff”. “Oh yeah” was my answer and in went a large syringe full of midazolam. It took several seconds before I felt anything, then there was this feeling of being slightly drunk. I leaned back, looked at the ceiling and then I was home in my own bed (minus tooth) and it was four hours later, thanks to my wife who managed to get me home in her car. I downed a few painkillers and fell asleep and woke up with a throbbing ache wondering where the day went.
IV is awesome.