You’ll be reassured to know that our ability to control pain has been dramatically enhanced in recent years. Besides our gentle approach, our practice has taken advantage of the following methods of pain control.
- Topical anaesthetic – This is rubbed onto the gum before treatment to reduce the discomfort of the local anaesthetic injection.
- Local anaesthetic – This is the traditional form of pain control in dentistry, although now it is faster acting and shorter lasting.
- Nitrous oxide (Laughing Gas) – Provides light sedation for those people anxious about dental treatment.
- Intravenous sedation (Sleep Dentistry) – For those people who are particularly anxious but don’t want to go to hospital for a general anaesthetic, this can be an appropriate technique. The dental treatment is conducted at the surgery with the combined help of an anaesthetist who provides deep sedation medication.
- General anaesthetic – Performed in hospital under the supervision of an anaesthetist.