March Break is upon us, and while that’s a good thing because it means we’ve finally made it through another harsh winter, for many parents it also means making arrangements for someone to take care of your kids while they’re home from school. But while we can’t do much to help relieve that type of pain (maybe you could bring them in for a reeeeaaaaallllllly long checkup?) we thought we’d take a minute to tell you all about pain free dentistry, which we do offer at both of our Milton and Scarborough offices.
What is Pain Free Dentistry?
A lot of people are just afraid to go to the dentist, and the funny thing is that if you ask them why they don’t really have a good reason. That’s okay, though, we get it. While most people are in and out of our dentist chair without even the slightest discomfort, we do use sharp and pointy tools to help keep our clients teeth clean and healthy.
But sometimes, even our promises to be as gentle as possible just aren’t enough to soothe some of our nervous clients. In such cases, we can use nitrous oxide gas, or laughing gas, as it is commonly known.
How Does Nitrous Oxide Work?
We sometimes use laughing gas to help take the fear out of dentistry for our more anxious patients. A mix of nitrous oxide and oxygen has been used to provide painless dentistry treatments for many years and is popular because it’s easy to administer, has a quick recovery and patients typically don’t feel any side effects. Even while they’re under a laughing gas treatment, patients can still think straight and talk to the dentist or hygienist. Patients feel a lot calmer and less anxious when we do our dental work, and some even feel giddy (hence the term ‘laughing gas’).
Laughing gas in easy to administer. We simply place a nose mask on the patients face and they breathe normally. The gas only takes a few minutes to take effect, and we only give our patients the minimum amount of nitrous oxide to ease their nerves. We have full control over the amount of gas that our patients receive, so if we notice them tensing up we can give them a little bit more, and if we feel them relaxing on their own then we can give them a little bit less.
Once we’re done our work we simply remove the mask and within a few minutes the effects wear off. By time we’ve done our final checks, cleaned up and booked their next appointment, they’re fully back to normal and ready to continue on with their day – but with a brighter and healthier smile!
If you’re putting off a trip to the dentist because you’re anxious about how much it’ll hurt or you just don’t like the thought of someone poking around inside your mouth, our pain free dentistry treatments are perfect for you! Give us a call at our Milton office at (905) 636 – 9770 or at our Scarborough office at (416) 291 – 0306 and let us help take care of your beautiful smile!
