When people think of anaesthetic during dental treatment, it is almost always local anaesthetic delivered safely through dedicated dental care needles to ensure that the target area is numb enough to treat without causing any additional pain or distress.

It is extremely common to use a local anaesthetic, and almost any significant dental treatment will use it. However, some people are particularly anxious about treatment, and sometimes a dental treatment takes longer than the typical time it takes for the local anaesthetic to wear off.

In general, sedation has been the main way to ease someone during dental treatment. It does not render a patient unconscious, but instead, they are conscious but relaxed. Many patients report barely remembering the treatment or how long it took.

It is used instead of a general anaesthetic, which renders a patient completely unconscious, but why is this the case?

Part of the reason is due to effectiveness; sedation works, is reliable, is safe outside of an operating theatre and can be administered by specialist dentists rather than strictly by anaesthetists who are trained to monitor a patient’s condition whilst under general anaesthetic. 

As well as this, dental procedures are generally more complex and require more participation from a patient than any other type of surgery. Often, a dentist needs to adjust in ways that are difficult, if not impossible, with an unconscious patient.

Breathing tubes can get in the way; dentists often have to move themselves rather than the patient, as they are paralysed.

It also requires far more preparation; a patient cannot eat for six hours before their procedure, and needs to be looked after for a day afterwards.

This means that it is generally used in cases of severe dental anxiety, where even conscious IV sedation does not work effectively, and in certain types of oral surgery, such as complex extractions of wisdom teeth.