What is IV sedation?

[Hatem]

Hi

I have a deep fear of dental injections and I start to panic whenever I am due to have a dental injection for dental treatment. In the past my dentist has always given me sedation tablets that I take before my dental treatment and they use to make me a bit more relaxed but I could still feel and see everything that was going on around me.

I have now heard that there is also IV sedation available which apparently works better than the sedation tablets. Could you tell me exactly what is IV sedation? how does it differ in its effect to the sedation tablets that I used to take before my dental treatments in the past? Is it really more effective than the sedation tablets?

[Dr Mohsen J. Esfahani]

Thank you for your post. IV sedation works by sedation drugs being adminstered via a line in the arm into the body. Its very fast acting and the level of sedation can be adjusted very quickly and easily.

Oral sedation works by tablets which are much slower acting and the level of sedation can not be adjusted as easily. So once the dental treatment starts, if the patient is not well sedated, with IV sedation its possible to easily increase the level of sedation but with oral sedation this is not possible so easily and treatment may have to be rescheduled.