If the dentist is the reason you have stayed away for years, sedation is how people who dread dental work get it done anyway. It is available here in Winchester, TN, from nitrous oxide to IV.
Comprehensive Conscious Sedation
Dr. Orr is licensed for it by the Tennessee Board of Dentistry.
Air Force sedation training
His Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency with the U.S. Air Force included intravenous conscious sedation.
DOCS Education
A member of a continuing-education organization for sedation in dentistry.
Sedation is regulated by the state, and the deeper levels require a permit a dentist has to earn and keep. Dr. Orr has earned that permit and gives IV sedation himself, so serious treatment, from surgical extractions to implant surgery, can be done here in Winchester, TN, under sedation.
Dr. Orr finished his dental education at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
He then completed an Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency with the U.S. Air Force, which included training in intravenous conscious sedation.
He holds the Tennessee Board of Dentistry’s permit for Comprehensive Conscious Sedation and keeps his training current through DOCS Education.
Which one is right depends on how much work you need and how you feel about having it done. It is decided with you at a consultation.
Breathed through a small mask
You stay awake and aware, just noticeably less bothered. The edge comes off within a few minutes.
A prescription pill, taken about an hour before your appointment
Deeply relaxed and drowsy, still able to answer questions. Most people remember little of the appointment.
Delivered through a vein, adjusted throughout the appointment
The deepest level offered here. Many patients are so comfortable that they remember little or none of the procedure.
Fear is the common one, and it is reason enough on its own.
A bad experience with a crown elsewhere, then two crowns, a root canal and a filling done here in one sedated visit.
Sedation is one of the procedures Franklin County patients routinely leave the county for: an hour to Murfreesboro or Huntsville, and a day off work.
It happens in Winchester, TN, with the same dentists who clean your kids’ teeth.
Tullahoma is 20 minutes from Winchester and Manchester is 25.
Ask for a sedation consultation. Nothing is decided on the phone.
I'm deathly afraid of the dentist and needed 6 teeth pulled and 2 cavities filled. I wanted to be put to sleep so they gave me pills prior to the appointment and by the time I arrived to the appointment I really didn't remember anything. Next thing I knew I woke up in my bed and was asking if the procedure was over. I had no swelling or pain at all. Best experience I've ever had at the dentist.
Laura Chitwood · Google review
Both of these patients had sedation. Shown with their consent.
Missing and broken teeth. With sedation and careful planning, her smile was rebuilt by the end of the month.
Every one of her teeth was failing. With sedation, the teeth were removed and immediate dentures placed.
Most of the worry about sedation is logistical: what you can eat, who drives, and how much of the day it costs you.
A consultation first. We go through your medical history, the medications you take, and what you need done. That conversation decides which level of sedation is appropriate, or whether you need any at all.
You'll get instructions on eating and drinking, and on which of your regular medications to take. Arrange your ride then, not on the morning.
If you're taking an oral sedative, it's about an hour before your appointment, so you arrive already relaxed rather than waiting in the chair for it to work.
You're monitored the entire time. You can respond if we ask you something, and most people's memory of it afterwards is patchy or absent.
Unless you had nitrous only, someone else drives. We'll tell them what to watch for and when you can eat.
Expect to be drowsy and to sleep some of it off.
For most healthy patients, yes. The safeguards are the training, the monitoring and the medical history you go through beforehand, rather than the drug itself. Some conditions do raise the risk, which is exactly why the consultation covers your full medical history and the medications you take. If sedation is not a good idea for you, we will say so.
Every level offered here is conscious sedation: you breathe on your own throughout and can respond if we speak to you. With nitrous you stay awake and aware; oral sedation leaves you drowsy; the IV level is the one covered above.
Can I be asleep for dental work?With nitrous, yes. With oral or IV sedation, usually very little, and often nothing at all.
After nitrous oxide, yes. It clears within minutes of the mask coming off. After oral or IV sedation, no. You will need someone to drive you home and stay with you for a few hours, so arrange that when you book rather than on the day.
No, it works alongside it. Sedation handles the anxiety and the awareness; local anesthetic still handles the pain. You get both.
From 13 and over, yes. We do not sedate children under 13. For a patient who is 13 or older, whether sedation is appropriate still depends on their health and how much work is needed. That is a conversation to have at a consultation, and we will answer for your child specifically.
It depends on the level of sedation and the length of the appointment, and some of it may be covered depending on your plan and the procedure. Call the office and we will do our best to go through it with you before you commit to anything. Please have your plan details ready, and the patient is ultimately responsible for the cost.
No. A few comfortable appointments change what the dentist's office means to you.
