Medical facilities require plumbing infrastructure for more than just water. Doctors, dentists, and other care providers regularly need to use gases such as medical air, oxygen, and others to provide care for their patients. One type of medical gas you may be familiar with is nitrous oxide. In this article, our team will go over a few examples of how this gas is used in the field of medicine.
- Anxiety Management – One of the primary uses of nitrous oxide in medicine is as a treatment to reduce a patient’s anxiety. The gas is most often used in this way during procedures where the patient will be awake, such as in the treatment of dental cavities. Breathing in nitrous oxide causes feelings of calm relaxation, which gives the patient a more pleasant experience during medical and dental procedures. This is also helpful for the medical care providers, as it allows them to perform the procedure with fewer interruptions.
- Pain Relief – Another application of nitrous oxide in medicine is as a method of pain relief and management. In addition to helping keep patients calm, nitrous oxide also dulls their sensitivity to pain. Nitrous oxide by itself is not enough to fully block all pain signals, so it is typically used in combination with other anesthetics such as Novocain. Nitrous oxide can also be used to help patients in labor manage the pain of their contractions, and the calming effect helps these patients deal with the stress of labor as well.