How Sedation Dentistry Works

If your child needs help to feel more comfortable during dental treatment, we offer various modalities. We strive to make their dental experience a positive one!

Nitrous Oxide (“Laughing Gas”): 

This is simply air (a combination of nitrous oxide and oxygen) your child breathes that helps them to relax during dental treatment. It does require some cooperation from the patient. They have to lie in the chair and accept the laughing gas.

Your child will breathe oxygen for 5 minutes after completion of the procedure and will be recovered entirely from the nitrous oxide before leaving the office. Depending on the amount of treatment, one to multiple appointments may be necessary.

Oral Conscious Sedation: 

Medication is administered orally or nasally in the office by the Pediatric Dentist. The type of medication depends on the length of the procedure, the child’s temperament, and the goals for the treatment. 

The medication takes between 5- 60 minutes to work, depending on the medication chosen for your child. Nitrous oxide is usually used with the medication to produce a more profound level of sedation. Your child will not be asleep for the treatment. They will be awake, but the medications have amnestic properties where the treatment will seem more like a dream, or they may not remember the treatment. 

Your child will remain in the clinic until returning to post-sedation behavior and reflexes. 

Depending on the amount of treatment, one or two sedation appointments may be necessary.

IV Sedation in Office: 

A Pediatric Anesthesiologist (Dr. John Sisney with Pediatric Dental Anesthesia Associates) visits our clinic monthly. Dr. Sisney will give your child an IV and administer medication that will put them to sleep for dental treatment. He monitors the patients during treatment. Your child will not be intubated. Your child will recover in the clinic. All the dental treatments will be completed in a single visit. They make the experience wonderful for you and your child! 

General Anesthesia in Hospital: 

We take our patients to St. Tammany- Covington Surgery Center. Your child will be under general anesthesia and be intubated (a breathing tube will be placed) to support their airway. The breathing tube is typically placed through the nose. They will be administered medication in same-day surgery to help the child be separated from the parents. The patient is taken to the operating room. When anesthesia is started with gas, the patient breathes, then an IV is administered, and then the breathing tube is placed. Your child will recover in the post-anesthesia care unit. All treatment will be completed in a single visit.