You have rescheduled the same appointment twice. The tooth still hurts, but the thought of the chair makes your stomach drop. If that sounds familiar, you are not weak and you are not alone.
Sedation dentistry uses medication to help you stay calm during dental care. In Encinitas, Dr. Gregory Skeens offers two options: nitrous oxide, a gas that relaxes you in minutes, and oral conscious sedation, a pill you take before the visit. Both keep you awake and able to respond, and both turn a dreaded appointment into something you can get through.
Dr. Gregory Skeens, D.D.S., has practiced general dentistry in Encinitas since 2007 and takes a conservative, no-pressure approach. He only recommends treatment when a tooth truly needs it, which matters when fear has already been driving your decisions.
What to know if the dentist makes you anxious
- Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, works within minutes and clears fast, so you can usually drive yourself home.
- Oral conscious sedation is a pill taken about an hour before your visit, and it lasts several hours, so you need a driver.
- Both methods keep you conscious and able to respond, not fully asleep.
- About 15 percent of adults avoid the dentist because of fear, according to the American Dental Association.
- Call Encinitas Family Dentistry at (760) 944-9288 to talk through which option fits before you book.
What is sedation dentistry, and is it safe?
Sedation dentistry means using medication to calm you during treatment while you stay awake and breathe on your own. A general dental office uses conscious sedation, which keeps your natural reflexes working. You can still respond to the dentist the whole time. Serious problems are rare, and your medical history is reviewed first.
This is different from general anesthesia, where you are fully unconscious. With conscious sedation, you drift into a relaxed state but never lose the ability to breathe for yourself or answer a question. The Cleveland Clinic notes that patients often remember little of the visit even though they were awake.
Safety starts with your history. Before any sedation, the office asks about your health conditions and every medication you take, since some drugs interact. That review is the reason sedation stays safe for most healthy adults.
Tell the dentist if you are pregnant, have breathing problems like asthma or sleep apnea, or take medication for anxiety or sleep, since these change what is safe for you. When in doubt, mention it. Older adults and anyone on several prescriptions get extra care during the review. Sedation is a tool, not a rule. The office will say so if a lighter option makes more sense for you.
Nitrous oxide, or laughing gas
Nitrous oxide is a mix of nitrous oxide and oxygen that you breathe through a small mask over your nose. It brings on a light, calm, slightly floaty feeling within a few minutes. You stay fully awake and can talk to Dr. Skeens. Once the mask comes off, the effect clears in about five minutes.
Because it wears off so quickly, laughing gas fits mild nerves and shorter visits like a cleaning or a single filling. You leave with no lasting grogginess, and you can usually drive yourself home and go back to your day.
Some people feel a mild tingling in their fingers and toes as the gas settles in. That is harmless. It fades once the oxygen flushes it out. Laughing gas also helps with a strong gag reflex, which is one more reason it works well for cleanings and X-rays.
The dentist controls the level of gas the whole time and can dial it up or down. If you have avoided care for years and want to start small, this is often the gentlest first step.
Oral conscious sedation
Oral conscious sedation is a prescription pill, usually a benzodiazepine such as triazolam, taken about an hour before your appointment. It brings a deeper sense of calm than laughing gas. You stay conscious and can respond, but you may feel drowsy and remember little of the visit afterward. The effects last several hours, so you need someone to drive you.
This option suits stronger anxiety, a long procedure, or several treatments handled in one visit. Many patients describe it as feeling far away from the appointment while still being able to follow simple requests.
A little planning makes the day smoother. Wear comfortable clothes, eat something light unless the office tells you otherwise, and confirm your ride the day before. Take the pill only at the time the dentist tells you, not earlier.
Plan for a quiet rest of the day. You take the pill before you arrive, so line up a ride to and from the office ahead of time. The medication lingers, which is why driving is off the table until the next day.
Which option is right for your anxiety?
The right option depends on how much anxiety you feel and how long the procedure runs. For mild nerves or a routine cleaning, nitrous oxide is usually enough, and you keep your day. For stronger fear, a longer visit, or several treatments at once, oral conscious sedation gives you a deeper calm. Dr. Skeens helps you decide at the consultation.
Here is how the two options compare on the things patients ask about most.
| Factor | Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) | Oral conscious sedation |
|---|---|---|
| How you take it | Breathe through a nose mask | Prescription pill before the visit |
| How fast it works | A few minutes | About an hour |
| How deep it feels | Light, relaxed calm | Deeper, drowsy calm |
| Memory of the visit | You stay aware | You may remember little |
| Driver needed | No, you can usually drive | Yes, arrange a ride |
| Recovery | Clears in about 5 minutes | Several hours |
| Best for | Mild nerves, short visits | Stronger fear, longer visits |
Your health history and the medications you take also steer the choice, which is why the decision happens with the dentist and not from a chart alone. Both options exist for the same reason: to get you the care you have been avoiding without the dread that comes with it.
Will I feel any pain during the visit?
A sedation visit should not hurt. Sedation calms your anxiety, but it does not numb the tooth on its own. Your dentist still uses a local anesthetic to block pain in the area being treated. The sedation keeps you relaxed while the numbing does its work, so most patients feel pressure at most, not pain.
That combination is the point. Fear and pain feed each other, so easing the fear with sedation and blocking the pain with local anesthetic breaks the cycle that has kept you away.
If a past dentist ever started before you were fully numb, that memory can drive real fear. Tell the team about it, and they will make sure you are numb and comfortable before anything begins. You set the pace.
What a sedation visit feels like, start to finish
It starts with a conversation, not a procedure. You talk through your fears, your health history, and your medications, and Dr. Skeens matches the method to you. Nothing happens that you have not agreed to first.
On the day, you either breathe the gas through a mask or take your pill about an hour before you sit down. The calm settles in, the numbing goes in, and the treatment gets done while you rest in the chair. With laughing gas you head home on your own. With oral sedation, your driver takes you home to rest.
You can agree on a simple hand signal to pause if you need a break at any point. Getting that bit of control back is part of why a sedation visit feels so different from the appointments you remember.
What does sedation cost, and does insurance cover it?
Sedation cost depends on the method and the length of your visit. Nitrous oxide is usually a small add-on to the procedure fee. Oral sedation costs more because of the medication and the extra monitoring. Dental insurance covers sedation in some cases and not others, so coverage varies by plan and by procedure.
The office talks through the full cost with you before any treatment starts, so you are never surprised. You stay in control of the plan. You always have the choice of whether to move ahead.
Ask the office to itemize the sedation separately from the treatment, so you can see exactly what each part costs. For payment, Encinitas Family Dentistry offers an in-house membership plan and accepts CareCredit for spreading a larger cost over time. To get an exact estimate for your visit, the office needs to see you first and check your plan.
Booking a fear-free visit in Encinitas
If fear has kept you from the dentist, the hardest part is the first phone call, not the visit. Putting it off usually turns small problems into bigger ones, so the sooner you come in, the less there is to fix.
Our team is used to nervous patients. Lianna, one of our registered dental hygienists, has a gentle touch that helps anxious people settle into the chair. As a trusted Dentist in Encinitas, Dr. Gregory Skeens, D.D.S., has cared for Encinitas patients since 2007 with a calm, conservative approach, and he keeps Monday hours until 6:00 PM for schedules that cannot bend during the day.
You do not have to white-knuckle your way through this. Call Encinitas Family Dentistry at (760) 944-9288, tell the team you get anxious at the dentist, and ask which sedation option is right for you.