Sedation can be useful if:
- you don’t want to be aware of what’s happening during a procedure and you want to be “out of it”. In this case, IV sedation is the method of choice.
- you want a little help to relax – “laughing gas” can give you a pleasant relaxed feeling
- you have a “gut feeling” that sedation would help you and allow you to get work done which otherwise you wouldn’t be able to tolerate
- your fear is procedure-specific (e. g. needles, extractions), especially if you know that the fear would still exist in the presence of an empathetic dentist and adequate pain-control
- you perceive your fears to be completely irrational and not helped by either an empathetic dentist or psychological techniques
- you have other mental health problems and you feel you’d benefit from sedation
- your primary aim is “to get your teeth fixed” as quickly as possible, for example because you’re very busy or you’ve got an important social event coming up
- it’s an invasive or unpleasant procedure such as more complex extractions
Sedation may not be a good option if:
- control and trust are a major issue for you
- you’re considering sedation to “make life easier” for your dentist, for example because you fear that they will get frustrated or angry with you
- you feel you would benefit from a gentle approach which would involve being talked through procedures, going at your pace, and using stop signals
- you feel you’re being “bullied” into accepting sedation
- you have an intense dislike for or fear of the drugs used for sedation (or the psych pharmaceutical industry in general)
- you’re worried that sedation will interfere with your judgment and your ability to communicate your concerns to your dentist