Oral Conscious Sedation

February 17th, 2009 by Mark Mutschler

Sedating children to help them cope with extensive or painful procedures is a great help for many kids but very worrisome for some of their parents.  

Because Oregon, and especially East Portland, is home to many families that care deeply about health and the substances their children are exposed to, some Oregon parents worry about using drugs or medicine with their kids.

We use very safe drugs to sedate children in both our Oregon City and Portland offices.  Our first sedative drug is nitrous oxide gas.  Nitrous oxide is sometimes used for race cars but its first use was as a pain killer.  

In fact, a dentist in the early 1800′s noticed that someone who breathed nitrous oxide gas as a intoxicant was not bothered by a cut on  his leg and after having one of his teeth pulled out using nitrous oxide gas without much pain, he discovered the first medical anesthestic gas.  

Nitrous Oxide gas is often called Laughing Gas, Giggle Gas, Happy Gas, etc. because in addition to its analgesic properties (ability to relieve pain), it is also a euphoric (makes you feel happier).

Another sedative drug that we commonly use in our office for anxious kids is triazolam (Halcion brand). This comes as a pill that has a mild taste that kids do not seem to mind holding under their tongue or chewing up.  

Triazolam is related to Valium and Ativan because they are all in the benzodiazepine group of drugs.  Triazolam is an excellent choice for dental care of scared kids because it is very safe, it works within about on hour, and it wears off after only a few hours. 

The last sedative drug we use for kids afraid of the dentist is hydroxyzine pamoate (Vistaril brand).  This liquid tastes pretty good and it is an antihistamine drug that reduces nausea and also has some sedative effects.  

Nitrous oxide, triazolam, and hydroxyzine can be used singly or in combination to help children who are afraid of the dentist feel more relaxed and more cooperative without going to sleep.

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