Many times I am asked by my patients if they need sedation for their oral surgery procedure. A huge advantage of an oral surgery practice is the opportunity to go to sleep for your treatment. This is not necessary for all procedures and many times depends on the patient.

Many oral surgeons don’t give their patients the opportunity to choose a numbing shot or sedation for their procedure. There are so many patients that strongly dislike the dental office and they MUST have sedation in order to complete their procedure regardless of the ease or difficulty. Let’s make this clear, sedation is NOT the only option you have. My feelings say that if you undergo routine dental care easily then most of your procedures can be performed under local anesthesia.

For more difficult procedures, wisdom teeth and lengthy procedures I do recommend sedation.

This provides a safer operative environment for the patient during surgery. Finally, it is suggested that apprehensive children go to sleep for their procedures. During these formative years a child’s lifelong attitude towards dentistry can be influenced by one bad experience at the surgeon’s office…. that’s why sedation is recommended for most children in my office!