Related services
- Conscious sedation
- Treatment of jaw joint problems
Services
Conscious sedation
Most frequent technique during dental treatment is the local anesthesia, that can be completed with different sedative methods.
It is specifically recommended for those who are close to panic when the treatment starts or at the mere thought of the treatment itself, so much as they would not be able to tolerate the treatment without medication. Many of my patients report that their panic-like fear of dental procedures dates back to their childhood, when school children used to go to compulsory school dentistry. In most cases, they had a bad experience during these school dental procedures that they cannot forget those even as adults.
The most important sedative techniques during dental treatments are:
- drug preparation
- intravenous sedation
- conscious sedation with nitrous oxide
- combined technique (the above mentioned three methods together)
Drug preparation before dental treatments in local anesthesia:
It is needed if the patient is very anxious or if the treatment is long and causes higher load than the average. Ideally, taking drugs happens at least one hour before the treatment by adults and at least half an hour before by children.
Intravenous sedation:
Giving medication is happening intravenously. We set the sedation on the level that makes the patient able to communicate continuously.
Main advantage of intravenous sedation is the fact, that the effect of it appears immediately. If the sedation, the pain relief is not complete, the anesthesiologist can replenish the drug in small doses, and monitor the effect. Drugs given intravenous are more effective than drugs given oral. This technique is safe and very effective mainly in severe cases of dental anxiety.
Conscious sedation with nitrous oxide:
With conscious sedation we can create a condition with less fear of dental treatments, less anxiety, higher pain limit. So the pain relief become more effective, meanwhile the patient remains cooperative, follows the instructions. His pharyngeal reflexes work and spontaneous breathing remains.
Because of this, the treatment is much easier for the dentist and much more tolerable and pleasant for the patient. He feels the treatment is shorter in time.
Treatment of jaw joint problems
Jaw joint problems are among the most difficult to treat in dentistry. It is primarily a stress disease: people who are over-precise, or are perfectionists, those who deal with anxiety, company executives, but we can also take the current Covid epidemic as an example, which causes uncertainty and anxiety in most people. As a result, many people have come forward with similar problems recently.
In addition, many people come to our clinic with pains that they cannot define. In most cases, there is nothing wrong with the person’s teeth, but in the mornings they have regular pains in the neck, back of the head, ont he temples, they suffer from poor sleep, grinding and clenching of the teeth at night or even during the day, and sometimes pain radiating into the ear. Our first priority is to understand how the chewing mechanism works. It is actually a bilateral joint that together hold a single bone. This limits the jaw’s mobility considerably. The structure is further complicated by that the teeth determine how close a person can move the lower jawbone to the upper jawbone. If the upper and lower teeth are “too close together” or simply missing, the jaw’s articular head and articular cavity will be close together. This leads to a number of problems, such as muscle pain, headaches, joint pain, joint crunching and wear, often to the extent that the patient is unable to chew after a certain period of time. In such situations, conservative therapy may be considered. Bite guards, crowns for elevation, orthodontics (braces), etc. can be used.
The aim is to stop the degenerative processes of the joint and to achieve a comfortable state in which the patient’s jaw is at rest and therefore it is able to regenerate. Unfortunately, a damaged joint or a spasm of a muscle cannot be repaired in a matter of days or weeks, but it is possible to improve the patient’s quality of life after a longer period of time.