nitrous oxide gas (also known as laughing gas) is used to induce a state of relaxation. A local anesthetic will be administered in combination with nitrous oxide to eliminate pain. This is the most frequently used sedation method used in dentistry and with us .
All bodily functions remain normal and the person is able to breathe on their own. The patient will often fall asleep and experience some degree of amnesia about what happened during their dental appointment.
Advantages:
- Nitrous oxide works very rapidly - it reaches the brain within 20 seconds, and relaxation and pain-killing properties develop after 2 or 3 minutes.
- The depth of sedation can be altered from moment to moment, allowing the person who administers the gas to increase or decrease the depth of sedation. Other sedation techniques don't allow for this. For example, with IV sedation, it's easy to deepen the level of sedation, but difficult to lessen it. Whereas with gas, the effects are almost instant.
- With nitrous oxide, it's easy to give incremental doses until the desired action is obtained (this is called "titration"). So the administrator has virtually absolute control over the action of the drug, preventing the possibility of accidental overdoses. While giving incremental doses is possible with IV sedation, it's not possible with oral sedation (as a result, oral sedation can be a bit of a hit-and-miss affair).
- Inhalation sedation is very safe. It has very few side effects and the drugs used have no ill effects on the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, or brain.
- Inhalation sedation has been found to be very effective in eliminating or at least minimizing severe gagging.
