Sedation Dentistry

Nitrous Oxide

Nitrous Oxide or what is more commonly know as laughing gas is a form of sedation dentistry that is used to help calm hyper nervous dental phobic patients, those with a psychological fear of dentists and dental treatment, so they can comfortably receive the oral care and dental treatment they need without undue stress from their anxiety.

Many patients with dental phobias do not even seek the care they need even when they are in pain. Their psychological fears over ride their practical sensible knowledge that they need treatment and their condition will only get worse without treatment, causing them to act irrationally and avoid dental treatment at all costs no what the negative consequences of their actions or inactions.

Nitrous oxide sedation can give hope to this type of patient allowing them to over come their psychological fears that prevent them from seeking the oral health care and dental treatment they need. This sedation technique can allow them to feel more comfortable in seeking treatment prior to some catastrophic problem arising that causes them pain, loss time from work and extensive and therefore expensive treatment, and even the possibility of an emergency room visit.

Nitrous oxide sedation can be used in combination with mood alteration sedation and benzodiazepines to attain a synergistic calming effect that is greater than the sum of the individual methods.

The combination of sedation techniques or nitrous oxide alone can significantly reduce the patient’s phobic fears and anxieties by allowing them to achieve a state of conscious sedation in which they can go into their own world where they can block out everything during dental treatment that they find offensive. They can avoid the sound of the dental high speed handpiece, what most patients refer to as the dental drill, they can avoid the sight of the dental instruments the doctor uses, which are often sharp and pointed and perceived as implements of torture rather than the instruments of healing they really are, the don’t need to deal with other treatment sounds and dental odors that also trigger their phobia and anxiety.

Nitrous oxide can be very beneficial to many dental phobic anxious patients helping them achieve a level of psychological comfort that allows them to receive the dental treatment they need, who otherwise would avoid dental treatment at all cost, while having very low adverse risk factors. This means that nitrous oxide is available to almost all dental phobic patients and at a moderate cost to the patients, so they are few barriers to their treatment.

Nitrous oxide is a pharmaceutical induced conscious sedation technique that makes patients less aware of their surroundings so they can block out all the sensations that trigger their phobia and anxiety in the dental office during dental treatment and follow up appointments. As such there are some precautions that need to be taken, so patients must disclose all the medications, both prescription and non-prescription, that they are taking to the doctor to ensure there are no adverse drug interactions and let the doctor know of any medical condition they have.

Thankfully there are few contraindications to nitrous oxide sedation so it is available to almost all phobic patients. Some exceptions are claustrophobic patients who can not tolerate the closed in feeling of the nose hood that is use to administer the nitrous oxide, mouth breathers who can not breath through their nose without consciously trying, patients with sinus infections or other sinus problems that preclude them from breathing through their nose and patients who do not tolerate the feeling of loss of control well.

Nitrous oxide sedation therapy also has the advantage of being administered in the dental office and has an extremely short half-life, basically the nitrous oxide has to be being administered to the patient to have any affect, so there is no transportation concerns of driving under the influence of an intoxicant or having to worry about getting someone else to transport the patient.

Nitrous oxide is administered via a nose hood that is placed over the patient’s nose and having them breathe deeply through their nose without talking during their dental procedure. The doctor can adjust the concentration of the nitrous oxide that the patient is receiving so that it can be tailored to the particular patient and the specific type of treatment the patient is receiving. These advantages make this type of conscious sedation a very flexible and valuable part of a dentist’s sedation armamentarium.