Sedation Dentistry

Sedation dentistry, offered at our Orange County, California dental practice, allows for comfortable, pain-free dental treatment, and can greatly alleviate anxiety in individuals who suffer from dental phobia, allowing them to receive the dental care they need.

DR. SUSAN CALDWELL: Sedation is wonderful. It's for the busy person who wants to get all their work done at one time--maybe the CFO, the executive who flies all over the country. They want to get in quick and fast. It's also--and how it started out--is for the very highly anxious and very fearful patient. In fact, I am a sedation patient myself, so I can empathize a great deal with people who are very afraid. If you're not a fearful patient, it's hard to realize what a big step it is to call a dental office, and to also show up and walk through the door. It's a very, very difficult step. And when you have a great team like we have, who can really put people at ease on the first phone call, which we have, it really shows me that we can get people to come in when they've been maybe gone for 20 plus years and not seen a dentist regularly. They're embarrassed. They're afraid. They're afraid of what you're going to say. They feel guilty, ashamed. It's wonderful because when you're afraid, your blood pressure goes up--you're cold, so we have warm blankets. It's like being in a spa. We turn the lights down and we have very relaxing soothing spa-type music. If you want to, you have a choice of wearing eyewear--something like you would if you were on a long plane ride. It's not uncomfortable. It's not scary. And you just fall asleep. And then when you wake up you don't remember the event at all, so you're not part of the experience--the fearful person doesn't want to be part of the experience. They just want to know that they're healthy. It's great--you come in unhealthy, and you wake up feeling great, and happy that everything is done, and you can pretty much get everything done in one visit.