Creative Dentistry

Creative Dentistry is built around a problem most general offices refer out: patients who genuinely cannot sit through dental work awake. The practice, on 23rd Avenue North a short walk from the edge of Vanderbilt's campus and Centennial Park, offers sedation across the full range — nitrous oxide, oral sedatives, an intramuscular injection, and intravenous sedation — and the two dentists behind it, Drs. Hill and Foster Ferguson, have logged thousands of hours of IV sedation since 2018. Much of the work that follows is heavy: same-day crowns, implants, root canals, and full-mouth rehabilitation compressed into far fewer visits than an anxious patient would otherwise face.

IV sedation is the piece worth understanding before you call. A sedative is delivered through a vein and titrated in small increments while your breathing, pulse and oxygen saturation are monitored, which is why the depth can be adjusted partway through the appointment rather than guessed at the start. You are not unconscious — you still respond to instruction — but the drugs suppress the formation of new memories, so most people recall very little afterwards. The honest limits: IV sedation is not general anaesthesia, local anaesthetic is still injected once you are comfortable, and it does not shorten the dentistry itself. Sedation here is offered to guests aged sixteen and older, and only after a medical screening; certain conditions, medications and airway problems rule people out. Plan on leaving as a passenger rather than a driver, which means lining up a ride while you are booking rather than on the morning of the appointment.

The schedule is unusual and worth checking against your own. Doors open at seven in the morning Monday through Thursday and the practice closes at two, with nothing on Friday or the weekend. That suits anyone who would rather have a long sedation appointment finished and the grogginess worn off well before evening, and it suits Midtown workers and Vanderbilt staff who can walk over early. It does not suit people who need late-afternoon or Saturday care. Parking in this pocket of Midtown is street meters and garages rather than a surface lot, so leave a few extra minutes for it. If the reason you have been avoiding treatment is fear rather than distance, this is the sort of office worth crossing town for.