Sedation Dentistry

One out of four children experience cavities between the age of 2 to 5 making them too young to cooperate for dental treatment while awake. The most common culprit for this extensive damage (called Baby Bottle decay) is nighttime breast or bottle feeding and the use of sippy cup with juice/chocolate milk. When considering sedation, the following points need to be assessed: 

 

1. Patient safety- can the treatment be completed in the office while maintaining patient’s physical safety and emotional well-being.

2. Quality of treatment- constantly moving patient can not only pose a risk of injury, but also result in compromised quality and longevity of treatment.

3. Multiple appointments- not every child possesses the emotional bandwidth to cope with the discomfort of successive dental appointments.

4. Special needs- regardless of age, some patients require sedation due to intellectual or physical disabilities and our office provides sedation dentistry until the age of 10 and in some special circumstances until 12.

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A sedation appointment is planned well in advance and allows us to address all dental needs in a single appointment. The patient is sedated under the care of an anesthesiologst and discharged the same day usually within 1-2 hours. Please note that the actual dental treatment completed will be decided once the patient is sedated and a new exam with radiographs is completed. All relevant paperwork required by our office and the anesthesiologist will be explained by our staff. Children, being more resilient than adults, often recover within 24-48 hours. If you have any questions or concerns after the sedation please call the office at (724) 774-1920 or text after hours (878) 529-0336.​