“For some people who are apprehensive about having their dentistry done…  We have some people who are just so apprehensive they can’t even come into the office or need someone to come with them.  That’s fine, sometimes first visits we only just sit down and talk a little bit, before going into the dental treatment.  If people are so apprehensive that they can’t undergo preliminary looking and a couple of radiographs to see what their problem is whether it be sleep apnea or other situations, that even can be done under sedation dentistry.  We go with whatever pace the person can go at.  As far as the actual process once we are ready to do dentistry, we usually give the patient some medication for the night before.  Just so they sleep better, because often times they are worried about the procedure days in advance and they have trouble sleeping.  It helps to get a good nights sleep the night before so the body is properly rested which helps the body to be sedated.  They will come to the office we will give them some medication here at the office and monitor them with a pulse monitor which manages their blood pressure and heart rate.   It’s always a little unpredictable how much medication someones going to take to get to a comfortable level, so we promise people we aren’t going to start them until they are at that level.  With oral sedation it is a little slower onset then iv or general anesthetic but what we usually do is crush the medication and place it in the tongue, there is lots of blood vessels so it gets picked up pretty quickly.  During the procedure we monitor them and add medication if need be so that they are comfortable throughout the procedure.  And then they will need someone to drive them home, they will be walking on their own when they leave, but their memory.. the medication tends to stay around for a few hours.. so we want someone to take them home and take care of them.”