Nitrous Oxide
Nitrous oxide is a sedative gas that is used
for dental treatment. It is a mild relaxant, and is very helpful if you
find dental treatment stressful.
the mask is worn on the nose |
If you
have true dental phobia, this will probably not be strong enough for
you, and you will need sedative medications taken by mouth (often
referred to as sleep dentistry),
or possibly intravenous sedation or general anesthesia. See our page
about sedation dentistry for a fuller
discussion of these options. |
Nitrous oxide is breathed through a mask placed over
your nose. The dentist usually starts out with a low concentration and
then gradually increases it until you feel the desired effect. While
you're receiving the gas, it's good to give the dentist feedback on its
effects. You can strengthen its effect by breathing more deeply. You can
also lessen the effect by breathing more through your mouth. But it's best
to let the dentist adjust the amounts, because he or she will take note of
the concentration that works best for you and will then be better able to
treat you.
This works well for people who have trouble getting
numb. If you've had the experience where you've required multiple
injections of novocain and still felt the drilling in your teeth or the
tooth extractions, nitrous oxide will
strengthen the anesthetic somewhat and you probably won't feel any pain
during your dental appointment.
One of the chief advantages of nitrous oxide gas
over pills taken for conscious
sedation dentistry is that there is no lingering effect. Within two
minutes after the gas is turned off, you can get up and go about your
normal activities. You can drive home, go back to work, or whatever you
need to do.
Possible disadvantages of nitrous oxide
There's not really much that can go wrong with this
gas. In the early days, it was possible to asphyxiate someone by giving
them too much of the gas and not enough oxygen. All of today's delivery
machines, however, have a fail-safe mechanism that prevents them from
delivering less than 20% oxygen and thus asphyxiation is impossible.
If it is given in too high a dosage, the patient can
experience nausea and can vomit. Dentists can prevent this side effect by
continuing to check with the patient as to how they feel before raising
the concentration and then keeping a record of the concentration that
works best for each individual. In over twenty years of using nitrous
oxide with patients every day, I never had an instance of a patient
vomiting.
