Is nitrous oxide at the dentist worth the cost?
I had nitrous about 20 years ago for a wisdom tooth extraction, and had delightfully vivid hallucinations which I recall to this day. As a matter of fact, I remember hearing the oral surgeon and his assistant laughing in the background at some of what I was trying to say in my stupor. So, last fall when I had a rear molar extracted, I jumped at the opportunity to have the $90 nitrous in addition to the local Novocaine needed. While I felt absolutely no pain during the process, I think the dosage of nitrous was dramatically lower than the one 20 years ago. No hallucinations at all. I think it just relaxed me a bit. I’m a real wimp when it comes to anything medical, so there was never any question in my mind that I wanted everything they offered in terms of pain and stress relief.
Don’t do what the straightener suggests. That is a really bad and dangerous idea. It also won’t really give you an accurate impression of what having nitrous at the dentist is like. Go with the nitrous. It will greatly reduce your anxiety. I have only had it once, and it made the dental work much less stressful. I also freak out at the dentist – once, everyone in the waiting room left, I was hollering so much. The time with the nitrous was extremely easy and smooth. I was still nervous, until it kicked in. Some insurance cos. will cover the cost partially, so if you have dental insurance you could check on that. You could also ask your dentist about prescribing an anti-anxiety medication for the day of the treatment. Many will give you one dose of Valium or something similar, which also makes it much, much easier to go through the necessary evil that is a dental procedure.
When I had nitrous (for an extraction), I found that it was a pretty mild sensation—I acutally asked the doc to crank it up some after he had first turned it on, because I wasn’t feeling like much other I’m Sitting In The Dentists Chair In Dread—but I think it helped a lot. Nothing profound in how I felt, and that’s actually kind of specifically what’s so great about it: everything’s just kind of laid back and, hey, okay. I recall feeling fairly objectively navelgazy about how and to what degree it was working, which is impressive considering a guy had a wrench in my mouth at the time. Highly recommended, in other words. Mild overall effect but it does what it says on the tin (actual laughing excluded, in my case). I hate going to the dentist, but I hated going to the dentist less that day than I would have expected.
nthing go with the nitrous (although your dentist does seem to charge a lot for it). I am a non-apologetic dental procedure wimp (bad, bad history). I have nitrous for everything, cleanings included. In fact, nobody is allowed to touch my mouth until I’m under the influence…on the front of my chart, in large, bold black sharpie it says ‘use nitrous.’ The years of bad experiences with dentists left me so anxious about dental work I actually put the tips of my fingers through the vinyl arms of an exam chair once. My current dentist, bless him & all his little elves, worked with me to make sure I feel *nothing* remotely related to pain when he works on my mouth. Nitrous helps enormously…it’s not that you’re so out of it you don’t know what is going on, but the world becomes wrapped in cotton wool and floaty, so you can take a disinterested view of what’s happening.
