Comfort DentistryWashington, DC

Our skilled dental professionals at Washington Center for Dentistry are dedicated to providing not only optimal dental care but also comfortable services for our patients. In order to do so, we provide various comfort dentistry options, including nitrous oxide sedation, quiet dental drills, and oral sedation dentistry. If you experience dental anxieties, our team can help determine if you are a candidate for a comfort dentistry option at our Washington, DC facility.

Sedation With Nitrous Oxide

Sedation Dentistry with Nitrous Oxide offers a safe way to eliminate anxiety at the dentist by giving patients a mixture of gasses they breathe in through a nosepiece. When inhaled, the mixture makes the patient feel drowsy but doesn’t put him or her to sleep. The gas takes effect within minutes and lasts for as long as the patient inhales. The dentists at Washington Center for Dentistry use sedation to make patients feel relaxed, where pain and anxiety are reduced. Many formerly-phobic dental patients are now laughing – with relief – thanks to this safe and easy process.

When the procedure is over, the nitrous oxide is turned off and the effect disappears within minutes. Once the nitrous oxide clears the patient’s system, normal activities can be resumed, such as driving home following the procedure.

How Does Sedation With Nitrous Oxide Work?

Nitrous oxide is mixed with oxygen to be easily inhaled through a small mask that will fit over the nose. It’s colorless, odorless, and non-irritating. It is meant to relax you throughout a procedure, not to put you to sleep as some people assume. In fact, you will still be able to hear and respond to your dentist’s instructions or requests. Shortly after breathing in nitrous oxide, you may experience a feeling of lightheadedness or tingling in the arms and legs. Some people feel a heavy feeling in their extremities. Once you stop breathing in the gas, the effects should dissipate a few minutes later.

Oral Sedation

If a patient has been putting off dental work due to fear, oral sedation dentistry can change all of that. A patient no longer has to be afraid to visit the dentist with the use of a variety of oral medications. On the day of the appointment, the patient will arrive about one hour early for one of Washington Center for Dentistry’s experienced dentists to administer the sedation medication. The pleasant-tasting medication is given by mouth to relax and allow the patient to be comfortable. He or she will be able to enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that all dental needs can easily be taken care of without discomfort. The patient will need a friend or relative to accompany him or her home after treatment.

Am I A Candidate For Oral Sedation?

While oral sedation is used for patients who are truly anxious or scared about getting dental work, it can also benefit patients who:

  • Can’t sit still for prolonged periods of time in the dental chair.
  • Have a low tolerance for pain.
  • Have extremely sensitive teeth.
  • Requires a large amount of extensive dental work.
  • Have a sensitive gag reflex.

Quiet Dental Drills

Many patients have avoided the dentist and getting necessary work done due to the dreaded dental drill. The noise alone can stir up feelings of anxiety and fear in patients, but that issue has been resolved thanks to quiet dental drills. Utilizing newer, more advanced technology, quiet dental drills are just as effective as traditional drills without all of the noise. For example, the compassionate dentists at Washington Center for Dentistry will use micro air wands in place of traditional drills for drill-free fillings. The entire process is more comfortable with even better-looking, more natural results.

How Do Quiet Dental Drills Work?

As its name suggests, quiet dental drills are quiet, but that’s not the only reason that patients and dentists alike love these new handpieces. They provide:

  • Less time in the chair since they are lightweight and easy to handle by dentists. This makes them faster to work with, which gets patients out of the chair much quicker.
  • A more pleasant experience. Stripping away all of the noise and vibrations connected to a traditional dental drill has been shown to lower patient anxiety and allow the patient to relax. The sound of older dental drills has been proven to raise patients’ blood pressure.
  • Better results since the quiet dental drills provide more advanced technology, which makes results safer, more effective, and more reliable.
  • Reduced discomfort since these drills are gentler and less invasive than the older dental drills.
  • Fewer side effects since these quiet drills don’t have the potential to damage, crack, or chip teeth like traditional dental drills.

The ultimate beauty of these drills is that dentists and patients both benefit.

Scroll to Top

Book Appointment