At Universal Dental, we have different ways to sedate patients. Some forms of sedation are more effective and lead to deeper sedation than others. It’s always better to calm patients down with the minimum sedation possible.
Inhalation sedation is the mildest type. The patient will inhale a specific gas that’ll calm them down. With inhalation sedation, you will remain conscious and responsive. You will also be able to recall what happens while you’re sedated.
Oral sedation is another common form of mild sedation. The patient is given a pill that will calm them down even further. Oral sedation is more effective than inhalation, but the patient will still be conscious and remember what happened during the procedure.
IV sedation is when patients are injected with sedatives. Using intravenous sedatives is the best way of controlling a person’s degree of sedation since these sedatives don’t have a long half-life in the blood. You will remain conscious under IV sedatives but will most likely not remember what happened.
General anesthesia is the most powerful form of sedation. It’s the type of sedation used in most surgeries. Under general anesthesia, patients aren’t conscious. It will take longer to recover from general anesthesia than other types of sedation.
Regardless of the type of sedation, you should try to arrange for someone to take you home. You might be able to drive following inhalation sedation. However, arranging for a drive home is a must following intravenous sedation and general anesthesia.