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April 2, 2025 3:18 pm

The Whole Tooth: Laughing About Laughing Gas

Apr 1, 2025
By Dr. Robert Kelly, D.M.D. General Dentist, McKenzie Dental

Laughing gas has been a popular tool for managing dental anxiety for decades. I remember doing a training for it a long time ago and we got to try it on each other for practice. It works for a majority of people, but there are some that do not feel its effects or feel the opposite of relaxed. I found out that training day that it works on me! It really can help you relax and feel at ease quickly.
More recently, we have seen a decrease in the prominence of nitrous oxide in dental practices. Fewer offices use it and even fewer offices offer it. Why is that?

There could be numerous reasons for this, some of which are financial and others that are regulatory hassles. Other reasons include environmental concerns, as it is a greenhouse gas that can contribute to global warming.

It can also have negative effects on the dental provider’s health with prolonged exposure, and can be particularly risky for pregnant mothers.

Another reason is that dental offices have changed dramatically over the past few decades, to much more patient-centric operations. There is much more attention paid to the comfort of patients than in the past, which has translated to overall reduced anxiety when going to the dental office.

Local anesthetics have become really good and so have oral pharmaceutical sedatives, which have gained in popularity as a way to reduce anxiety.

Perhaps not at the top of the list but still a factor is that it can be addictive! I have never had a problem, but I do remember learning in training that it is possible to become addicted to nitrous – and of course the most common person to have access to it is a dentist.

In fact, just recently there was a story in the news about a dentist in Texas who was pulled over for speeding by the police. He apparently ignored the police attempts to stop his vehicle for about a half mile before finally pulling over. When he did finally stop, he admitted to police that he had been inhaling nitrous oxide all day. You’ve got to appreciate the honesty there. In this case, his use would have been difficult to hide, as they found him in possession of 108 canisters of nitrous oxide, all of which were seized. That is a serious amount of laughing gas. On top of that, he was out on bail at the time for a previous nitrous oxide offense.

In the case of the joyriding Thelma-and-Louise-super-high-Texas-dentist, laughing gas, it turns out, is not so funny.

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