Sedation Dentistry

What is Intravenous sedation and what are the benefits?

Intravenous sedation in dentistry is a very safe and high effective procedure that will make your dental visit a relaxing, sleeping and comfortable experience. It is also known as twilight sedation, sleep dentistry or twilight anaesthesia.

A combination of intravenous anaesthetic, sedative and pain relieving medications is administered to create a very sleepy and pleasant dream-like state for the whole procedure so that you will be relaxed, comfortable and unaware of your surroundings while still maintaining the ability to breathe on your own, move and able to obey commands. The vast majority of people have no memory of the procedure. Memory before and after IV sedation is usually not affected.

Patient’s often comment that the whole procedure has passed in only a few minutes when in reality it may have been several hours. Intravenous sedation also allows patients to avoid the risk, cost and time involved with having a general anaesthetic. It allows your dentist to care for you at their clinic, and is safer, allows you to recover quickly and has minimal side effects compared to undergoing a general anaesthetic.