Edmonton dental sedation clinic offers free treatment to nervous patients

Laura Robbins had avoided the dentist for years, terrified of the pain. On Tuesday at the Kaye Edmonton Clinic, she faced her fear — but sedated, awake only to hear "you're done." "Here, you're out and no anxiety," Robbins said after her procedure.

The clinic's IV conscious sedation program, part of the University of Alberta's Mike Petryk School of Dentistry, offers free treatment one week at a time, five times yearly. A new session started Monday and will run all week, treating about 150 patients. All checkups, cleanings, fillings, and extractions are performed by dentists in training, supervised by faculty with decades of real-world experience.

Dr. Antonella Trache, part of the school's sedation program, said the clinic solves two problems at once: "Some of them have never had dental treatment or not had dental treatment in a very long time, and the anxiety is what's keeping them away from the dentist."

Demand for sedated dental work is climbing. Dr. James Yacyshyn, the university's director of continuing dental education, noted that the more patients sign up, the more experience new dentists can bring to the community. As the week progresses, he said, "we actually get to see how they evolve, and how their confidence increases and then they become more comfortable with this new skillset."