Oral health, which includes the health of your mouth, gums, jaws, and teeth, plays a crucial role in your long-term overall health. However, several barriers often keep people who need oral care from getting to a dentist, including fear of the costs, not understanding the long-term impact of ignoring it, or lack of resources (insurance).
Dental anxiety and dentophobia also prevent people from dental visits, causing treatable problems to worsen and potentially leading to complications elsewhere in the body. To help manage problems with dental fear that keep people away, sedation dentistry eases patients' problems to let them get the necessary dental procedures to protect their teeth and gums.
Dr. Kyle Kern and his team help Newberg, Oregon, residents maintain good oral health with a wide variety of dental treatments, including sedation dentistry.
As many as 20% of Americans struggle with some form of anxiety about going to the dentist, and those with dentophobia have a more intense fear of the same visit. Fears often connected with these conditions include:
Having other phobias or anxiety disorders increases the chances of dealing with dental anxiety or dentophobia, and family history, along with feeling embarrassed or helpless, plays a role in how you feel about a dental visit with these conditions.
Mouth bacteria help to break down food as you eat, and harmful bacteria form plaque and tartar from sugary food particles that cling to teeth. Without proper brushing, flossing, rinsing, and routine check-ups, the problems that this typically creates, such as gum disease and cavities, can lead to bacteria spreading. Conditions resulting from poor oral health include:
Harmful mouth bacteria can bind to proteins in your bloodstream and build up as plaque in your arteries, increasing the chances of coronary artery disease and eventually a heart attack.
People with gum disease are twice as likely to have a stroke, according to experts, due to the changes in blood and oxygen flow to the brain in people who have it.
Diabetics have a higher risk of infection, and, consequently, a higher risk of gum infection and disease, especially if their condition isn’t well controlled.
The excess levels of harmful bacteria in people with oral health problems also raise the risk of lung infections like pneumonia.
Pregnant women with gum disease have a higher chance of chemicals in the bloodstream that induce labor, which can lead to a premature birth and possible issues with the child’s weight.
To reduce the risk of dental complications and help ease your anxieties about treatment, sedation dentistry helps by using medications to lessen stress. It’s highly effective in managing dental treatment fears, needle anxieties, sensitive gag reflexes, sensitive teeth, claustrophobia, and unique needs that make relaxing otherwise difficult.
Three methods of sedation can be used in this type of dentistry:
Applied using a mask or nosepiece, this method helps you feel calm and relaxed within minutes, and the dosage is then monitored and adjusted throughout the treatment.
With this technique, we give you the medication about an hour before treatment, making you feel tired or even sleep during treatment. This is our main method of treatment to ease anxieties.
A very deep form of conscious sedation that’s applied with an IV line in the arm, often used when the procedure is expected to take a while or for people with severe anxieties.
Fear can make getting dental help difficult, but we can help you overcome it with options to help you get treatment in comfort with as little stress as possible. If you’re ready to get help for your dental needs, make an appointment with Dr. Kern and his team today.
