Dental care can make some people feel very anxious. For this, we have the possibility of offering you various forms of support such as conscious sedation or therapeutic hypnosis.

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Conscious sedation

It is a medical practice prescribed and used by your dental surgeon. It is a mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide that we inhale using a mask. This mixture is called MEOPA (Equimolar Mixture of Oxygen and Nitrous Oxide)

It promotes your comfort by making you relaxed and relaxed without falling asleep.

When you breathe in the MEOPA, you will feel the effects after a few minutes. As long as you are awake, you can even participate by holding the mask over your face. During the treatment, you just need to breathe naturally.

After removing the mask, the mixture of oxygen and nitrous oxide is eliminated very quickly and naturally by your breathing. The effects therefore disappear as quickly and a few minutes of rest in the chair is sufficient before leaving the practice. Driving is then possible.

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

What do you feel?

With conscious sedation, you are awake but relaxed.

Serene, you hear and see what is going on around you but

your perceptions may be slightly modified (amplified light and sounds).

It also works against painful sensations.

All these effects disappear with the elimination of MEOPA

in a few minutes.

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

Are there any contraindications?

It is not necessary to be on an empty stomach.

You just need to avoid having a very large meal before.

The age limit is on newborns under 1 month old.

Pregnancy is not a contraindication,

MEOPA is used in some maternities for childbirth.

In addition to this, you will need to know more about it.

The absolute contraindications are as follows:

-Recent head trauma

-Pneumothorax from 3 months

-Diving accident less than 3 months

-If you have received ophthalmic gas used in eye surgery

- Unsubstituted vitamin B12 deficiency.

- Unexplained neurological abnormalities

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Therapeutic hypnosis

This technique of relaxation and analgesia is particularly valuable in pain management.

We use it to relieve, or to distract from, pain.

 

"Hypnosis is a state of psychological functioning by which a patient, in relation with a practitioner, experiences a widened field of consciousness", explains Professor Antoine Bioy of the French Institute of Hypnosis (IFH) .

In other words, a hypnotized person finds himself in a state where his consciousness is partially dissociated from reality. We all experience it in a natural way when, on a familiar journey, we don't have a clear memory of our actions for the previous few tens of seconds. Have I locked my door properly? Was the last light green?

 

In the dental office, hypnosis can fulfill several tasks: it can reinforce local anesthesia, or replace it for people suffering from allergies to anesthetic products. It can also relieve anxiety in phobic patients, for whom stress amplifies the painful sensation. Finally, hypnotic support can help reduce medication intake after procedures.

 

Children are particularly receptive to hypnosis. For them, it's like a game, and they lend themselves to exercise without any problem. But the skepticism of some patients with regard to hypnosis does not define their response to the techniques. Most people are sensitive to it, as long as they put a little willpower into it.

Several techniques exist, some very simple such as the use of a soft and monotonous voice. Others are more elaborate: direct suggestions of analgesia - by generating the idea of ​​cold or numbness -, geographical and temporal distancing - by encouraging the patient to imagine himself in a familiar and soothing place - , or of distraction by confusion, surprise or saturation of information.

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It is a completely normal mode of functioning of human consciousness, increasingly studied in neuroscience. It is a natural state of consciousness just like the attentive consciousness that we use in our daily life. It's a natural way to use your mind, a way of thinking that's more of directed reverie than reasoning.

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Hypnosis is used in many areas of the medical industry.

At the dental level, it can be used in the context of care:

- Management of phobias (anesthesia, noises, smells, negative previous experiences ...)

- Nausea reflex

- Surgery, implantology, periodontology

• Acute and post-operative pain management

• Control of bleeding, salivation

• Improved wound healing

 

How do you use Hypnosis?

There are many ways to use hypnosis.

It can be formal or conversational:

 

Formal hypnosis will lead to a more or less deep hypnotic state through an induction process followed by suggestions which will deepen the hypnotic trance.

At some point, we start by performing an induction.

Several are possible (bodily relaxation, focusing the patient's attention, working with a pleasant experience or an interior safe-place, etc.) then, when the induction is over and the patient is in a light hypnotic trance, the caregiver goes deepen this state to a level suitable for the treatment to be performed.

 

Conversational hypnosis occurs during a discussion between the patient and the practitioner. There is no real induction.

Through his speech, we bring the patient to a more or less deep trance using specific techniques of verbal and non-verbal communication.

This method is particularly effective in everyday work.

The speed of implementation is one of the major assets of conversational hypnosis.

 

Does it work for everyone?

Yes! Since it is a natural state of consciousness that accompanies the imaginary functioning of the human being. Everyone does hypnosis or self-hypnosis without knowing it.

And, no .... Since the patient's trust must first be established in the caregiver / patient relationship.

 

In the medical or dental context or in intensive care, the patient is often so trapped by his sensations and his morbid imagination that he is quite ready to follow the practitioner in a hypnosis of comfort and relief, provided that a relationship of trust is established.

 

Is it a sleep?

No! The person appears to be asleep, there is less movement of the body and the person usually has their eyes closed. However, it is an intense work of interiorization.

 

As for the hypnosis shows, they play on the credulity of the spectators, and have nothing to do with medical hypnosis!

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