As friendly and welcoming as we all are at Colomberie Clinic in Jersey, sometimes the thought of having dental treatment can be a bit unnerving. This may be due to the fact you haven’t had this treatment before and don’t know what to expect, other times it may be because of previous negative experiences or comments that friends, family or colleagues make. Whatever the cause, one option we have for you is dental sedation. It’s extremely safe and effective and has been successfully used in dentistry for years.
In my previous job back in Glasgow, I worked in one of the city’s hospitals providing this service for patients with dental phobia and with additional needs such as learning disabilities or complex medical conditions, and found it to be extremely rewarding. It’s great to be able to provide something simple that can really help a person to either fix or remove painful, broken or problematic teeth, especially when their fears and worries had previously prevented them from doing this. I really hope that by offering this service at Colomberie Clinic in Jersey, we can help you get the healthy smile you’ve always wanted.
What’s great about dental sedation is how simple it is to carry out. All we need to do is give little bits of a medication until you’re relaxed and happy to proceed. We do this by giving the medication through a vein in your arm or hand, and this entire process takes mere minutes.
Once a good level of sedation is achieved you will be relaxed and calm enough to allow us to proceed with the treatment. It won’t put you to sleep, it won’t make you lose control, and we will still be chatting to you while we are working like we normally do. The only difference is you’ll happily work with us and allow us to carry out the treatment, instead of being held back by any fear or worries, and in most cases you’ll have little or no memory of the treatment itself.
Another advantage of this is that the recovery afterwards is also quick. The medication we use has been selected by dentists and doctors alike because it doesn’t leave you feeling different for days after, like a general anaesthetic in hospital can do. It gives us just the right amount of time needed in order to keep you relaxed and comfortable for the treatment to be done. After that, you’ll be able to go home and rest and feel happy with what you’ve achieved. Generally speaking, you can go back to normal activities like working and driving the following day. We would advise you to refrain from such activities for the remainder of the day of your treatment. You should use this as time to get some well-earned rest and maybe catch up on that TV show you keep meaning to watch.
Dental sedation can also help some people overcome their fears of the dentist. We can use this to get any parts of treatment that are daunting out of the way. For example, you might need a tooth removed or need a root canal treatment and feel that you need a little bit more help from us in order to do this. Once you’ve done this, those other little fillings or the scale and polish that you need might not seem so bad after all, and with some help from the team here you might be able to move on to getting these done without sedation.
Whatever your reasons for coming to the dentist, there is a place for dental sedation in many people’s treatment. If you feel that this may be helpful to you or someone you know, please get in touch with us with any questions you may have.
By Dr David Curran
Dental Associate
Colomberie Clinic & Dental Practice
Jersey, Channel Islands
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