{"id":800143,"date":"2026-07-13T23:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T23:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800143\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T23:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T23:50:16","slug":"edmonton-dental-sedation-clinic-seen-as-win-win-for-fearful-patients-budding-dentists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/800143\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton dental sedation clinic seen as win-win for fearful patients, budding dentists"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Drills, forceps, and that sharp metal hook.<\/p>\n<p>A trip to the dentist \u2013 with all its tools and instruments \u2013 can feel like a nightmare for some.<\/p>\n<p>Laura Robbins is among them. \u201cI totally hate the dentist,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Robbins says a bad experience in her youth has left her with a lifetime of dental anxiety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pain. Just terrified of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, she\u2019s facing her fear, but she won\u2019t be awake for necessary dental procedure; she\u2019s choosing sedation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHere, you\u2019re out and no anxiety,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cA little bit when you come in, but you\u2019re out and you wake up and you\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the Kaye Edmonton Clinic, dentists in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ualberta.ca\/en\/school-of-dentistry\/oral-health-clinic\/sedation.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">IV conscious sedation program<\/a> \u2013 part of the Mike Petryk School of Dentistry \u2013 are taking care of those clients who may need a little more help calming their nerves. And it\u2019s all for free.<\/p>\n<p>A new session started Monday and will last all week, treating about 150 patients. It\u2019s one of five sessions free for the public every year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome of them have never had dental treatment or not had dental treatment in a very long time, and the anxiety is what\u2019s keeping them away from the dentist,\u201d said Dr. Antonella Trache, part of the school of dentistry\u2019s IV sedation program.<\/p>\n<p>The checkups, cleanings, fillings and extractions are all taken on by new dentists.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Trache says offering this sedative treatment to patients scared of painful dental work offers two benefits to the community: patients get the care they need, and dentists get training to be certified \u2013 all within the safety net of being supervised by a faculty with decades of real-life experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSlowly, little by little throughout this week, we actually get to see how they evolve, and how their confidence increases and then they become more comfortable with this new skillset,\u201d Trache said.<\/p>\n<p>The demand for sedated dental work is on the rise, according to the head of the program, Dr. James Yacyshyn, who says more dentists are looking to add it to their practices.<\/p>\n<p>Yacyshyn, the director of continuing dental education at the University of Alberta, says the more patients sign up for the free clinic, the more experience new dentists can bring to the community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, nervous patients, there\u2019s never a shortage. To be able to treat them appropriately, with the different types of sedation modalities, it\u2019s never going out of style,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\tKeep it Factual<\/p>\n<p>Add CityNews Edmonton as a trusted source on Google to see more local stories from us.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=edmonton.citynews.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"add-trusted-source-badge\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778178555_824_google-trusted-badge.png\" alt=\"Add as a preferred source on Google\" width=\"198\" height=\"63\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drills, forceps, and that sharp metal hook. A trip to the dentist \u2013 with all its tools and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":["post-800143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}