Sleep Dentistry & IV Sedation | St. George, Utah
You close your eyes. We do the work. You wake up, and it is finished.
Most people who find this page have been putting something off. Sometimes for years. Sometimes for decades.
I brought sleep dentistry to Southern Utah 30+ years ago, and I have been doing it every week since. Not for one filling. For everything. Implants, crowns, root canals, wisdom teeth, bone grafting, and a full mouth of work, if that is what you need.
You will not feel it. You will typically remember very little or nothing at all. And in most cases, you will not have to come back six more times to finish.
That is the difference here.
Forget the procedure
Most patients remember little to nothing at all.
Safe & reversible
Direct IV access allows immediate reversal if ever needed.
One visit
Get all your work done in a single, comfortable session.
Gag reflex off
Perfect for patients with a pronounced gag reflex.
What is it?
Sleep dentistry means IV sedation. You may also hear it called twilight sleep or conscious sedation.
Here is all it is:
A small IV goes in your arm. Medication goes in through that IV. Within about ten seconds, you feel warm and pleasantly woozy, a little dizzy, the way some people describe a glass of wine hitting them.
Then the sedation settles in fully, and the appointment simply is not there for you.
Most patients have no memory of it at all. A few have vague, dream-like impressions of a sound or a voice. Nobody remembers much of the drill, the pressure, the smells, or the time passing.
You are not unconscious, and you are not on a ventilator. This is not general anesthesia in a hospital. You breathe on your own the entire time, and you respond if we speak to you. You just do not care, and afterward you do not remember.
Along the way, it does three other things people love. It shuts off dental anxiety completely. It calms a strong gag reflex. And it lets us finish everything in one appointment instead of dragging you back again and again.
Why this practice is different
This is the part I want you to read twice.
Plenty of dentists offer IV sedation. Very few will keep you sedated long enough to actually finish your treatment. So you get sedated for one or two simple things, and the rest gets scheduled out, or referred to a specialist across town who does not know you.
I do not work that way.
Because I place and restore implants, perform root canals, do bone grafting, remove wisdom teeth, and build crowns and bridges myself, there is nothing on your treatment plan that has to leave this office.
It took me six years to develop the workflow that makes that possible. Six years of protocols, sequencing, instrument changes, and supply management, so that one sedated session could carry a patient through their entire plan safely.
The sequence matters. The timing matters. And every single person responds to sedation differently, so the protocol gets customized to you. There is no substitute for having done this thousands of times.
That is really the honest answer to why we can do this, and most cannot. Over 30 years of them, and thousands of sedations in that time.
Long appointments do not rattle us. We regularly work through complete treatment plans in one sitting.
When we finish, the thing we hear most often is: "We're done? You did everything?"
Yes. That is the point.
Is it safe?
Yes, and I do not say that lightly, because I am the one sitting next to you.
IV sedation of this type is performed thousands of times a day around the world, and it is widely considered the safest and most controlled method of dental sedation available. The reason is simple: it is the only method that lets us adjust in real time and reverse instantly if we ever needed to.
Here is what stands behind that in this office:
A Moderate Sedation Permit (Class III) issued through Utah DOPL, the state licensing body that governs IV sedation.
30+ years of administering IV sedation, and thousands of cases.
ACLS certified. Advanced Cardiac Life Support, renewed every two years. My entire team also holds current BLS certification.
Member of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology (ADSA).
Two trained people are monitoring you at all times. Not one. Two, in the room, watching your vitals for the entire procedure.
Continuous monitoring of heart rate, ventilation, and blood pressure, plus continuous pulse oximetry and capnography when possible.
Reversal agents are on hand for every medication we use. Because the medication goes directly into a vein, a reversal agent also works within seconds if it is ever called for.
A defibrillator, oxygen, and full airway equipment in the office, and at least one ACLS-certified person present whenever a patient is sedated.
We also screen carefully before we ever start. Some patients with serious systemic health conditions are better served by deep sedation or general anesthesia in a hospital setting, and when that is the right call, I will tell you so honestly.
Read the full safety page: Is IV Sedation Safe? What to ExpectWho sleep dentistry is for
You Are Genuinely Afraid of the Dentist
Not mildly nervous. Afraid. Some of my patients could not tolerate an X-ray or an impression before we sedated them. That is not a character flaw and I have never once judged it. We simply work around it.
You Gag on Everything
A strong gag reflex makes routine dentistry miserable and sometimes impossible. Sedation switches it off.
You Have a Lot of Work to Do
Multiple crowns. Implants and grafting. A root canal plus restorations. Long, complex plans are exactly what this system was built for.
You Just Want It Over With
Some of my patients are not fearful at all. They are busy. They would rather sleep through one appointment than take four afternoons off work.
You Have Been Putting It Off & It Has Gotten Worse
That is the most common story we hear, and it is the one with the happiest ending.
If you are nervous reading this, that is completely normal. Almost every first-time sedation patient is. What I can tell you, from thousands of them, is that the second visit feels entirely different, because by then you know.
Read more about overcoming dental anxietyWhat we serve
The procedure is not really the point. You are. Whatever is on your treatment plan, our goal is to get through as much of it as we safely can while you are comfortable, and to send you home finished.
IV sedation vs. pills & laughing gas
Pills are unpredictable. The same dose lands completely differently depending on the person, their body chemistry, and whether they ate. If the starting dose is wrong, you are stuck waiting thirty minutes or more to change it.
Nitrous works, and it is fine for small things, but the nose hood sits right in the way when I need access to your upper front teeth, and it does not go deep enough for long treatment.
IV is immediate. Ten seconds, not thirty minutes. I can adjust your level of sedation instantly, in either direction, at any point in the appointment. I can use several medications that work through different mechanisms in the body. And it does not fade out on you halfway through.
Predictable. Adjustable. Reversible. That is why it is the one I trust for full treatment.
What to expect
The Consultation
We meet, we talk, and we look at what is going on. If you are too anxious for X-rays or impressions, we will tell you honestly: we can sedate you for that too. We build the plan around what you can handle, not the other way around.
The Night Before & the Morning Of
We will give you simple instructions. For a small number of patients who cannot even walk through the door, we can prescribe something oral just to get you here. Arrange a driver. That is the one thing we cannot do for you.
The IV
It goes in, and within seconds you feel warm and relaxed. Then the appointment quietly disappears.
Waking Up
Moderate sedation wears off quickly. Most patients are ready to go home shortly after we finish.
Recovery
The medications have a short half-life, so recovery is fast. No driving for 24 hours, and have someone with you for the first few hours. That is about the extent of it.
Then you go home, and the thing you have been dreading for years is simply done.
Cost & insurance
Sedation is priced as a flat fee here, not billed in fifteen-minute increments the way most offices do it. We will tell you exactly what your treatment and your sedation will cost before we begin, in writing, with no pressure attached. A flat fee makes sedation very affordable and a tremendous value.
Some insurance plans help with sedation and some do not, and it often depends on the procedure. We will check for you ahead of time so nobody is guessing.
Financing is available, including CareCredit.
See sedation costs, insurance, and financing in detail"Early on, a woman came in for a consultation and partway through she started crying. I stopped and asked her what was wrong. She said, 'I finally found someone who can treat me. I have been looking for someone like you for a long time, and the search is finally over.' That is the day I knew sedation had to be a permanent part of this practice."
It is IV sedation, also called twilight sleep. Medication is delivered through an IV so you stay deeply comfortable, feel nothing, and remember nothing, while we complete your dental work.
No, this is not general anesthesia. You breathe on your own and you respond if we speak to you. You simply feel nothing and remember nearly nothing afterward. Most people describe it as having slept.
Pills are slow and unpredictable, and once you have taken one, the dose cannot be adjusted for at least half an hour. IV works in about ten seconds and can be adjusted at any moment.
It is widely considered the safest form of dental sedation. We hold a Utah Moderate Sedation Permit, monitor you continuously with two trained team members in the room, keep reversal agents on hand, and are ACLS certified.
Effectively all of them. Implants, root canals, crowns and bridges, bone grafting, wisdom teeth, extractions, fillings, veneers, dentures, cleanings, and full mouth reconstruction.
That is exactly what we built this practice to do. Extensive plans may need more than one session, but the goal is always to finish as much as we safely can while you are comfortable.
No, you will need a driver, and you should not drive for 24 hours.
It depends on the treatment. We use a flat sedation fee rather than billing by the quarter hour, and we will give you the full number before we start.
That is normal, and you are not alone. Almost every first-time patient feels that way, and almost every one of them tells us afterward that they wish they had done it years ago.
The consultation is free, and there is no pressure attached to it. Come in, meet me, and let me show you what is actually possible.
Most patients tell me the same thing afterward. Their dental anxiety is simply a thing of the past.
Serving St. George, Santa Clara, Washington, Ivins, Hurricane, and all of Southern Utah.
