Preparing for Dental Sedation: Before and After Your Appointment

If sedation is part of your next dental appointment, some of the preparation happens before you arrive, and some of it concerns how you get home afterwards. What follows describes, in general terms, what you may be asked to do on either side of the appointment. It does not replace the instructions your own dental office gives you, and it does not name a fasting period, a medication or a dose.

What sedation dentistry is

Sedation dentistry is medication that helps you manage stress or anxiety during a dental procedure, and you may have dental sedation if you're having a lengthy procedure or you have dental anxiety. In sedation dentistry, you're awake and able to respond to questions, but you don't notice pain (Cleveland Clinic).

This article stays with preparation and the ride home. For the wider picture, see what sedation dentistry is and how the types of dental sedation differ.

Before your appointment

Your dentist may ask what medications you take, because certain medications may affect how sedation works. You may also need to avoid food and drink for several hours before your appointment (Cleveland Clinic).

Neither of those is something to work out from an article. The particulars that apply to you are the ones the office handling your procedure gives you.

If you're going to have IV sedation or oral conscious sedation, you should be sure to arrange for someone to take you home after your procedure (Cleveland Clinic).

After your appointment

Recovery times vary: they depend on the type of sedation and on how your body responds to the medications (Cleveland Clinic).

That is worth knowing in advance, because it means the shape of the rest of your day is a question for the office handling your procedure rather than something you can read off a general page.

Our office is at 147 Main St, 2nd Floor, Lodi, NJ 07644, and Dr. Steven Liao is our dentist. If you haven't been seen at our office before, you can start at our first-visit page.