Our Sleep Dentistry Procedure
What happens at my first consultation?
Your first appointment with Dr Max will be for a comprehensive examination. He will spend some time listening and understanding your needs and concerns, If you suffer from dental anxiety, fear of the dentist, or you are scared of needles, or have a gag reflex or do not like the sound of drills, sleep and sedation dentistry is your solution. It will minimise treatment time, and maximise comfort.
Dr Max will inform you of your treatment options and help you understand them, so that you can make fully informed choices. A pre-anaesthetic consultation can also be performed on the same day as your examination. Once this is completed, we are ready to schedule your sleep dentistry appointment.
Don’t worry, you are in experienced and caring hands in your sleep dentistry journey.
We ask all of our patients to avoid food and drink for 6 hours before your sleep appointment. We usually book our patients in the morning, so all you have to do is not have breakfast (not even a coffee - sorry).
So, we suggest a nice favourite meal the night before. Especially, if you are undergoing a surgical procedure with us, because you may need to be eating soft food for a few days.
It is normal to feel anxious the night before your appointment. Try to relax by doing something you enjoy.
You will bring a friend (carer) or a family member with you to your appointment. We like to talk to you both, and re-explain the procedure and reassure you. You will chat to and meet our anaesthetic nurse, Jacinta. She will be with you throughout your appointment.
We then take you through to our operating room. We place some stickers on your chest and connect you to our ECG monitor. We also place an armband on you, which gently squeezes your arm to take your blood pressure. We then pop a little straw in your hand, through which we give you some medication………….sleep time!
Most patients sleep or snore through their appointment. The medications have an amnesic effect; you will have little or no memory therefore you won’t remember the dental treatment performed. Yes! You won’t be able to remember any sounds of the drill or “the dental smell”.
During sleep dentistry, like a light sleep, you are able to vaguely respond to verbal commands, or to a light physical touch.
Ten minutes later (upto three hours in real time), you wake up and we say, “Hi”. Our patients usually say, “Have you started?”
We will give you fruit juice and continue your recovery. Your carer is invited to join you. We explain your aftercare instructions and let you go home. You are delighted and surprised that it’s all over and is so simple. You rest at home and are back to normal the next day!
We have been providing sleep dentistry for many years and have treated 100s of patients. You can be one of them.
FAQs
You will feel sleepy. You and your carer will receive post-treatment and home care instructions. IV Sedation is a quick recovery. You should not drive, operate heavy machinery or sign any important documents for at least 24 hours after the end of your appointment. You will be able to resume your everyday activities the following day.
Australian standards dictate that for a dentist to be endorsed as a conscious (IV) sedation Practitioner, they need to complete a rigorous two-year postgraduate degree at the University of Sydney. Dr Max has successfully attained this qualification.
Dental practices also need to meet exceptional standards to be able to become a registered day procedure centre for dental sedation. Many dentists/practices are unable to make such a commitment.
Dr Max Patel is a Dental Surgeon and a Dental Sedationist. Simply put, it is very difficult and demanding to achieve the required double qualification and high standards.
Thus, at other clinics, an anaesthetist is hired to attend the dental practice. Consequently, it usually involves additional appointments, additional costs and restricted appointment scheduling.
Dr Max is able to provide all of these services himself at Siana Dental. This enables you to receive treatment efficiently, with transparency of fees and without compromising your safety.
Some Dental Practices, unfortunately, create the illusion (marketing ploy) of providing IV sedation as a treatment option. These clinics will try extremely hard to persuade you into other forms of anxiety relief. This is because it can be difficult for them to hire an anaesthetist and extremely inconvenient to have the correct facility set up. They often suggest ‘happy gas’ or oral sedatives as a substitute to Sleep Dentistry.
There is a great difference between the sedative strength and properties used in genuine Sleep Dentistry and the mildly relaxing quality of happy gas and oral sedatives.
Dr Max is a registered and endorsed conscious sedation dentist and Siana Dental is a registered day procedure centre for dental sedation with the department of Health and Human Services Victoria. Therefore, we can provide Sleep Dentistry at an economical fee for our patients. We maintain our reputable high standard in accordance with our registration guidelines. Other practices charge a facility fee as well as the anaesthetist fees where Siana Dental simplifies this fee structure.
Your smile is our passion
Creating beautiful smiles everyday.
