Should I use Laughing Gas at the Dentist Office?

Many dental offices use nitrous oxide, sometimes called laughing gas, a sedative gas to relax people who have a fear of dental treatment. It is a safe form of sedation because you are awake and you are breathing the nitrous oxide mixed with oxygen, so you have an ample supply of oxygen at all times. You inhale through a small mask which is placed over your nose right before the dental procedure. During the breathing through the small mask, you are able to control the effects of the gas by breathing out of your mouth to stop the nitrous oxide intake.

Very soon after the gas is turned off, the relaxed and disassociated feeling disappears. Your ability to drive and get back to work can take place almost immediately. According to Best Practice and Research Clinical Anaesthesiology, available data does not support the idea that exposure to trace amounts of nitrous oxide is associated with impaired fertility or an increased risk of developing cancer.

Valium (oral diazepam) or chloral hydrate, a sleep inducing depressant, are used many times instead of nitrous oxide or laughing gas for children and adults during dental procedures. According to NCBI, the National Center for Biotechnology Information, oral diazepam and chloral hydrate had no influence on the behavior management for dental treatment with the studied sample of twenty children age 36 to 84 months old.

Anesthesiology, the Journal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists, notes that the routine use of nitrous oxide in patients undergoing major surgery should be questioned. The study found that patients who received 70 percent nitrous oxide anesthesia were more likely to suffer pneumonia, fever and wound infections and that the nitrous oxide-free group had a significantly reduced rate of severe nausea or vomiting in the first 24 hours after surgery.  No significant differences were reported for the two patient groups' duration of hospital stay. According to the ADA, American Dental Association, nitrous oxide is generally administered at lower concentrations for dental operations, typically 50 percent or less with a correspondingly higher oxygen level.

Also, according to School of Dentistry, University of Western Australia, while the practice of sedating patients for dental procedures is invaluable in the management of suitably assessed patients, patient safety must always be the primary concern.

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