Comfort Dentistry: Nitrous Oxide & Oral Sedation in Cooper City, FL

Sedation dentistry: Supporting a comfortable journey to your most confident smile

Piedra Dental Group is committed to helping our neighbors from across the Cooper City, Florida, area find their most confident smiles. Led by Drs. Alejandro Piedra and Robert Weishoff, our team, is also committed to supporting the most comfortable journey to this confident, healthy smile. We accomplish this both with our positive, comforting, and welcoming approach to care and with “dental allies” in the form of sedation dentistry.

Inhalation Sedation at Clinic
Dentist examining a patient’s teeth.

What is sedation?

Sedatives are medications prescribed to help you relax during visits and treatments at our office. This approach may be called “conscious dentistry” or “conscious minimal sedation.” The level of relaxation induced helps dental concerns or triggers for anxiety to melt away. Sometimes, you may become so relaxed that you doze off. This sense of being carefree is achieved without a loss of consciousness.

Do sedatives provide pain relief, too?

Sedatives represent a different category of medications from analgesics or pain relievers. These medications make you drowsy and relaxed, but they are not designed for pain relief. We have other drugs and methods for that! For instance, a painful tooth may be numbed precisely with a local anesthetic before treatment starts. Sedation can be particularly helpful for our patients with anxiety about the techniques traditionally used to numb their mouths. Sedation makes those fears disappear! Our approaches help make for a much more comfortable (and safer) treatment experience.

Smiling man in a dental chair after a dentist’s treatment.
Female dentist with happy male patient at clinic

How do dentists administer sedatives?

The most commonly used form of dental sedation is nitrous oxide, better known as “laughing gas.” This colorless and odorless gas provides light sedation for patients with mild anxiety. Effective and safe for most patients (even children), its effects are quickly reversed with the administration of neutralizing oxygen. So, you can get back to your day immediately, without feeling drowsy or groggy.

Dentists also prescribe medications taken orally in pill or tablet form to induce a state of relaxation. The type of medication and dosage prescribed depend on many factors specific to the patient. The pill is taken before the start of treatment to support an anxiety-free dental experience. This method does cause lingering drowsiness, so reliable transportation must be arranged in advance, as it wouldn’t be safe to drive afterward.

Your dentist at Piedra Dental Group can provide more details during a consultation at our office. We will also discuss the most appropriate options for you and your situation.

Is sedation just for people with fear and anxiety?

No. Sedation dentistry is a powerful tool to overcome all sorts of challenges to provide comfortable, safe, and efficient care. Our team uses it when treating patients with:

  • Extensive needs individuals who are undergoing complex and/or lengthy treatments
  • Very sensitive teeth
  • Claustrophobia in the dental chair
  • A lack of sensitivity to local anesthesia
  • Fidgety behaviors or a lack of control of movements
  • Highly sensitive gag reflexes

Call (954) 329-0673 to put fears, apprehension, and other challenges behind you in getting the care you need, want, and deserve with dental sedation. 

Lovely young woman having her teeth examined by dentist