IV Sedation – Sleep Dentistry

IV sedation uses a combination of sedating and pain-relieving medicines to create a calm, dream like state of sleep, during your planned dental procedure. You will have no recollection of most of the events during the dental procedure. It is not a general anaesthetic, where patients are deeply unconscious and not breathing for themselves. Therefore, it avoids the need for hospitalization. IV sedation is a safe, modern, and highly effective technique that will make your visit to the dentist a more relaxing and comfortable experience.

IV sedation can help you to:

• Eliminate fears, anxiety and pain experienced during dental procedure
• Eliminate awareness and recollection of painful injections, noises, smells, tastes, vibrations, pulling and pushing movements that are associated with needles, instruments, drilling and extractions
• Eliminate the boredom and anxiety experienced during long or complex procedures
• Have a positive experience from your dental procedure and relieve your fears for the planned future procedures
• Avoid anxiety-provoking and cost-incurring trips to operation theatres in hospitals
• IV sedation in the dental surgery also allows your dentist to concentrate on their work on more cooperative patients in their own familiar environment of their rooms.

A comprehensive pre-sedation assessment will be conducted over the phone by the sedation specialist, prior to the planned procedure. A detailed medical history will be taken, to assess your safety and suitability to undergo IV sedation, and to formulate a tailored preparation for IV sedation. The risks and complications of IV sedation will be explained in detail. This also provides a chance for you to ask any logistics or finance related questions.

Occasionally, you might be asked to obtain copies of medical reports from your family doctor or your medical specialists for clarification of your medical conditions. It might also be necessary sometimes for you to have further medical work up before a decision is made on your suitability for IV sedation. Rarely, patients may be considered unsuitable or unsafe to undergo IV sedation. Some of these conditions include Obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA), morbid obesity (BMI > 35), severe cardiovascular or respiratory diseases. This decision will be clearly explained to you, and alternative options will be recommended.

The fee for your sedation session is based on the total sedation time, which is sometimes 30 minutes or more than the actual dental procedure time. This includes the time taken to start sedation before the actual commencing of your dental procedure, and the time required to recover and monitor you after the dental procedure, until you are awake enough for discharge. Payment may be made by cash, cheque, or Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT). Bank account details will be provided if you wish to pay by EFT. Credit card and EFTPOS facilities are NOT available.

Itemised receipt will be provided, usually by email, after the completion of procedure. You can go online or visit the offices of Medicare or your private health fund to check if and what level of rebate you can claim, with the details provided in the receipt. You may be charged a fee for the pre-sedation consultation if the sedation procedure is forced to be cancelled in the last minute resulting from your failure to follow instructions.