It’s only when you start to lose your teeth that you realise how vital they are, not just for eating but for talking, smiling, laughing and holding your face in place. Now that yours are on the way out, how will you replace them, bearing in mind that you aren’t the world’s most fearless dental patient?

Well, it would be easy to go for the least invasive option and get dentures made. But dentures only give you about 25% of the chewing power of real teeth, and after a while they lose their grip and can give you all sorts of embarrassing moments. How about, if you’re only losing a few teeth in a row, fixed bridgework? It’s more stable, for sure, but having a bridge means compromising 2 neighbouring teeth, which have to be ground down and fitted with crowns to become buttresses. Seems a bit extreme.

So what about dental implants then? Or does your fear outweigh the opportunity to have replacement teeth that give you back full functionality? Please don’t let it. Instead, come to David Madruga in Marylebone and receive treatment from a dentist well used to nervous dental implant patients. In truth, with dental implants, you have nothing to fear but fear itself, but that’s not very helpful when you are up against anxiety.

David Madruga and his highly experienced team have treated many nervous dental implant patients using conscious sedation.

What is conscious sedation?

Conscious sedation means that you are awake and can respond to questions should you need to be, but you are so deeply relaxed that most of the time, you are not really even concentrating on what is going on with the implant surgery, let alone able to get worried about it.

You can have oral sedation, which means taking a tablet about an hour before surgery. Or you can have intravenous sedation, which is administered straight into the bloodstream through the back of your hand. The latter can be controlled as we go through surgery.

Afterwards the sedation wears off quickly, but you will need someone to make sure you get home safely.