Twilight dentistry

[Ellie M]

Hi

I am a very nervous patient and I have not seen a dentist for as long as I can remember. Two of my back teeth look pretty dark and hurt from time to time, so I am pretty sure they need to be removed.

I have seen one dentist advertise that he does twilight dentistry and I would like to know if that is the same as IV sedation. I would like to know if I have twilight dentistry, will I be able to drive home afterwards? If I am not able to drive, will I be able to take the bus/train home?

Will I be awake during twilight dentistry or completely knocked out? Will I remember what happened during my time there afterwards?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your post.

I don't know for sure what twilight dentistry is but I assume it must be some sort of sedation. You can ask the dentist who does twilight dentistry to tell you exactly what he uses. There are dentists who use midazolam only for sedation and that works well most of the time. We have a specialist anaesthetist who is trained and uses multiple drugs and can sedate people to a very deep level in a safe manner. So you may fall asleep but you will still be conscious and breath by yourself. Making patients unconscious is considered as General anaesthetic and is rarely done outside hospitals.

You must not drive after sedation as the feeling of being sedated is not too different to being drunk. Just as you would never recommend a drunk person to drive, we would never recommend a sedated patient to drive afterwards. Its just not safe. Also taking the bus/train home is not good either because you will have to cross roads and go up and down stairs and so on.

We insist on our sedation patients having an adult escort who drives them home or goes home with them in a cab.