What happens on the day of your sedation

We provide sedation for both dental and medical treatment. The principles are the same in both: carefully titrated medication, continuous monitoring, and a level of sedation tailored to you and your procedure.

What happens around the sedation can look a little different — dental treatment takes place in and around your airway, while medical procedures vary widely in length and in how much pain relief is needed alongside the sedation itself. Where that matters, we'll point it out as we go. Everywhere else, “your clinician” means whoever is carrying out your treatment — your dentist, surgeon or doctor.

Getting here

Everything before you arrive — booking, your patient pack, the medical history review, and the day-before reminder — is covered step by step on our Your Sedation Journey page. By the time you're here, we already know you; this page picks up from the moment you walk through the door.

For dental treatment, plan to arrive around 15 minutes beforehand; for medical procedures, around 30–45 minutes. Your sedationist arrives ahead of time too, and before anything begins, we sit down with you — your escort is welcome to join, if you'd like — and talk through exactly what's going to happen. This is also your last chance to ask anything.

Getting ready

We start with some baseline readings — blood pressure, oxygen levels and breathing, sometimes an ECG — so your sedationist has a clear picture to monitor against throughout. We'll usually ask you to visit the bathroom beforehand too; a full bladder can make sedation less comfortable, so it's worth doing before you settle in.

Your sedation is given through a small, soft cannula placed in a vein in your hand or arm, which stays in place for the whole procedure. For dental treatment, the chair is then reclined and you may be given protective glasses — partly to shield your eyes from the treatment light.

Sedation begins

Sedation is introduced gradually — you don't suddenly disappear into sleep. Your sedationist adjusts the medication carefully while watching both you and your monitoring, and you'll begin to feel increasingly relaxed: some patients describe it as pleasantly heavy, distant or cloudy. Anxiety tends to fade quickly.

We mainly use propofol, delivered through a computer-controlled infusion that's calculated for you individually — which is one reason it matters that your height, weight and age on your medical history are accurate.

Keeping you comfortable during the procedure

Sedation and pain relief are related, but they're not the same thing — how discomfort is managed depends partly on what you're having done.

For dental treatment

Your dentist numbs the treatment area with local anaesthetic. By the time this is given, you're already considerably relaxed, and the amnesic effects of sedation may have begun — so the experience is very different from having the same injection while fully awake. We wait for it to take effect, then check the area is properly numb before treatment starts. If anything suggests it isn't, more is given. Being sedated never means being expected to tolerate pain.

For medical procedures

The approach varies with the procedure. Your surgeon may use local anaesthetic, and for some procedures your sedationist may also give carefully selected pain-relieving medication alongside the sedation.

Finding your level

Something rather remarkable usually happens once you're settled: a patient who arrived anxious, sometimes genuinely phobic, becomes deeply relaxed and quite unconcerned about what's happening — without needing to be unconscious.

Our aim is a level called conscious, or moderate, sedation. You may be profoundly relaxed and remember very little afterwards, but you can still respond when we need you to. If we ask you to take a deeper breath, change position or answer a simple question, you usually can. During dental treatment, that might mean opening your mouth when asked; during a medical procedure, it might mean shifting position or briefly answering your surgeon.

Why we don't go deeper

Deeper sedation isn't better sedation. As it gets deeper, your breathing and blood pressure are more likely to be affected, and your protective reflexes — like the cough that clears your throat if a little water or saliva pools there — become less reliable. Staying responsive also helps your clinician: many procedures need you to follow a simple instruction at the right moment.

Dental sedation has some particular demands

Treatment happens in and around your mouth, often with water, suction, instruments and noise, while your dentist needs good access and — at times — your cooperation. Good dental sedation isn't just about making someone sleepy; it's about finding the level where all of that becomes remarkably unimportant to you, while you keep breathing normally, keep your protective reflexes, and can still respond when asked. That's why we adjust continuously rather than aiming for the deepest possible level.

Medical procedures bring their own considerations

Stimulation, duration, positioning and the need for pain relief all vary from one procedure to the next. Your sedationist adapts both the depth of sedation and any additional pain relief accordingly. The principle stays the same: enough sedation for comfort and effective treatment, without giving you more than you need.

If you feel even a moment of discomfort — usually because local anaesthetic hasn't quite reached an area — we spot it immediately, your clinician adds more, and we can briefly adjust your sedation to get you comfortably past it.

Staying with you throughout

Your sedationist doesn't start sedation and step back — they remain with you and keep adjusting throughout, reading your breathing, your movement, your expression and your monitoring together. Sometimes they'll notice something before you'd think to mention it.

We know needles worry a lot of people. It's handled quickly and gently — some sedationists use a quick numbing cool spray beforehand — and it's genuinely one of the smallest parts of the day, however large it looms beforehand.

Finishing and coming round

As treatment nears its end, your sedationist starts reducing your sedation in good time, so you're becoming more alert as the work finishes rather than staying deeply sedated once there's nothing left to do. Once your clinician is finished, the infusion stops completely, and the cannula comes out once you no longer need it.

Coming round tends to happen gradually rather than all at once — sound and your surroundings sharpen first, then a clearer sense of time passing. Typical recovery times and how we decide you're ready are covered on the Your Sedation Journey page.

Going home

Your escort needs to be with you before you can leave — we can't discharge you without them, and we'll talk you both through your written aftercare instructions. Full aftercare guidance — what to avoid, what's normal, and red flags to watch for — is on our Aftercare & Recovery page; the short version is that your judgement stays affected for longer than most people expect, so the rest of the day is about resting quietly with your escort, not decisions, driving or alcohol.

Most patients remember little or nothing of the procedure itself — that's the amnesia doing exactly what it's meant to do, and it's normal for it to linger a little into the rest of the day too. It usually clears within a few hours, and nothing about that means anything went wrong.

We stay in touch

The following day, we send a short follow-up text asking how your recovery and the sedation itself went. By then, most people feel back to normal — but we're always reachable if anything doesn't sit right.