Faucial reflex or gag reflex is natural reaction. However, patients with gag reflex abnormalities could create additional inconveniences for the dentist during dental treatment.
How to cope with such challenge?
It is known that foreign body in the oral cavity may cause gag reflex. This process is tightly connected not only with person psychological state, but also to his or her sensitivity to different tastes and smells.
In such cases, dentists often use application anesthesia. Anesthetic gel or spray that reduces sensitivity of tissues during dental treatment.
If your patients have informed you about gag reflex abnormalities, you should pay extra attention to their pose during dental treatment. When patients are in the supine position, the saliva collects in the tongue area and could cause gag reflex. Put such patients in sitting position during dental procedures. Also, do not forget about assistant, who will help you with the saliva ejector.
In order to reduce gag reflex during dental implantation in the lower jaw, some dentists often use regional anesthesia. This type of anesthesia will numb not only mucosa, gums and lips, but also the tongue.
During dental implantation in the upper jaw, gag reflex arise because of contact of soft and hard palate with a dental instrument. Regional anesthesia is highly applicable in such cases.
If there is no positive results of all mentioned methods, you can use pair of nitrous oxide as a sedative procedure. This will help your patients to reduce anxiety and nervous reflexes, while they are conscious. This is the main difference between pair of nitrous oxide and general anesthesia.