Before I tell you what sleep sedation dentistry is in specific terms, it really makes sense for me to quote an excerpt from a patient testimonial letter, something given to my fathers practice long ago, after his experience opting for sedation in order to solve his dental issues. You’ll want to read this, trust me.
“First I want to examine what sleep dentistry is NOT. It is NOT an experience wherein you are essentially banished to a wholly uncomfortable environment and forced to choose between the view of either a blinding white light or the nose hairs of at least 2 people – all while they poke, prod, stretch and manipulate everything on your face located below your forehead.
It is NOT a sudden electrical storm of excruciating pain, when some ridiculously immune and exposed molar nerve is drilled, causing my own tiny little bit of Hell on Earth to forever remember. It is NOT having to mimic the first 2 years of human life sans diapers (but with the prerequisite bib), leaning up and spitting on command as if I’d just tossed up some disagreeable baby formula. It most certainly is NOT the endurance of countless, never-ending audible suction tubes, clanging metallic instruments, and some apparatus out of view that sounds remarkably similar to a fighter jet landing on the crown of my head every 6 or so minutes.
Furthermore, it is NOT knowing that for all the time I will sit and endure this self imposed, modern-esque, Machiavellian torture chamber, I will be silently and dreadfully picturing the 7 or more appointments to come, wherein I can expect to endure at least the same humiliating, painful and uncomfortable existence until I either mercifully die, or I am cured simply out of the God-like admiration for my newly discovered pain threshold.”
Still wonder why certain people avoid the dentist? Just to be clear on this; the person who wrote that letter for my Dad is actually an extremely well known and best selling author. As you can see his flare for the dramatic serves him well, even when writing about the terror of dentistry. Having said that, his words truly do speak volumes as to what dental fears can do to cripple even the richest and most successful people on this earth. Last I checked, this particular fellow had sold over 8 million books in paperback alone, and yet before meeting with my fathers practice, he had the oral hygiene of a third world beggar.
It was upon my Dad showing me this letter that I became painfully aware just how serious dental phobia is, and even more, how seriously the dental profession has to combat these fears with real techniques to alleviate any and all prevailing fears. To be blunt, that’s what sleep and sedation dentistry is in a nutshell. It is the answer for dental terror. Of course it is simultaneously much more than that, but in the context of this patient, it enabled important and critical care to be administered.
To make a longish story shortish, quite obviously this patient had had some truly terrifying experiences, all previous to contacting my Dads practice, and it was those prior experiences that left him with a full blown fear. As an aside, since completing his treatment (some years ago now) I’ve come to understand what caused his terror, and I truly understand how he ended up in that state. But the end result for him was 10 long years of neglect, and repairing that kind of damage took a Herculean effort. Without getting to caught up in specifics, I’ll digress for now and leave you to this famous authors own explanation as to what sleep sedation dentistry IS 
.
“Now that I’ve covered what it is NOT, I will explain just exactly what you offered me when the suggestion of being put to sleep was brought to my attention. Sedation dentistry IS nothing short of a savior to this slave of silent pains and embarrassment. It IS a technique that allows the most terrorized and disheartened trauma victim a complete and permanent respite from the despair and chaos of chronic agony.
Sleep dentistry IS when a person such as myself can walk in an office, say hello to a few new-found, non-threatening acquaintances, be sedated, and 5 minutes later walk out of the office on his way to a healthy mouth and a bright smile. Of course that the 5 minutes lasted almost 9 hours matters not, I mean, heck if I knew! The moment between being adjusted in the chair until the time I left the office seemed like less time than it takes between commercial breaks of my favorite Seinfeld rerun.
Thank you Doctor, you’ve done nothing short of give me a new lease on life, one free of pain and the shame of a neglected mouth. You are hereby permanently on my Xmas card list.”
In the next go around I will certainly detail some specific info on the procedures of sleep sedation dentistry, but for now I hope that at least it is clear just how truly important a procedure it can be, for people in all walks of life whom have the very real and debilitating fear of something as important to them as medical procedures.
