Nervous about your treatment?

Intravenous Conscious Sedation (aka IV sedation) is when a drug, usually of the anti-anxiety variety, is administered into the blood system during dental treatment. If you are nervous or anxious about having your treatment we can provide this option to help you. Our dentists are experts in IV sedation, Nick Stretton and Rohit Bedi also teach other NZ dentists sedation and monitoring techniques. We operate to the highest sedation protocols and offer advanced sedation methods.

Below are some questions and answers about IV sedation. Please contact us if you would like to know more.

What does it feel like and will I be asleep?
In reality, you remain conscious during conscious IV sedation. You will also be able to understand and respond to requests from your dentist. However, you may not remember much (or anything at all) about what went on because of two things:

1. IV sedation induces a state of deep relaxation and a feeling of not being bothered by whats going on

2. the drugs used for IV sedation produce either partial or full memory loss (amnesia) for the period of time when the drug first kicks in until it wears off.

As a result, time will appear to pass very quickly and you will not recall much of what happened. Many people remember nothing at all. So it may, indeed, appear as if you were asleep during the procedure.

Is it still necessary to be numbed with local anaesthetic
and will my dentist numb my gums before or after Im sedated?
The drugs which are usually used for IV sedation are not painkillers (although some pain-killing drugs are often added, see below for more info), but anti-anxiety drugs. While they relax you and may make you forget what happens, you will still need to be numbed.

What if I have a fear of needles & Injections?
You will not be numbed until the IV sedation has fully kicked in.  You will very probably be relaxed enough not to care by this stage. Your dentist will then wait until the local anaesthetic has taken effect (i. e. until youre numb) before starting on any procedure.

Read more about IV Sedation here

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