---
title: "Nitrous oxide & gentle numbing for children Berlin-Mitte – F80"
description: "Nitrous oxide and flavoured numbing gel at the paediatric dentist in Berlin-Mitte: five steps against fear and pain, without sedation – procedure, limits and tips for parents."
url: https://f80.berlin/en/treatments/nitrous-oxide-and-gentle-numbing/
lang: en
---

# Nitrous oxide and gentle numbing for children in Berlin-Mitte

> Nitrous oxide and flavoured numbing gel at the paediatric dentist in Berlin-Mitte: five steps against fear and pain, without sedation – procedure, limits and tips for parents.

## On this page

- [Fear and pain are two different problems](#start)
- [Five steps, and we always start at the bottom](#treppe)
- [The numbing before the numbing](#vorbetaeubung)
- [How we give the injection in a child-friendly way](#betaeubung)
- [What nitrous oxide is – and what it is not](#lachgas)
- [When nitrous oxide is not an option](#grenzen)
- [Hypnosis – the path entirely without medication](#hypnose)
- [What you can do before and after the appointment](#eltern)
- [What insurance covers and what is private](#kosten)
- [Frequently asked questions about nitrous oxide and numbing in children](#faq)

**F80 – The Tooth and Face Specialists, Berlin Mitte**

- Address: Friedrichstraße 80, 10117 Berlin, Germany
- Phone: 030 436665501
- Email: willkommen@f80.berlin
- Opening hours: Mon–Fri 8 am–8 pm, Sat 9 am–7 pm, Sun 10 am–4 pm – 7 days a week
- Online booking: https://www.doctolib.de/privatpraxis/friedrichstrasse-80-10117-berlin/mvz-f80-dr-ziegler

The question parents ask most before a treatment is not what it costs, but: will my child feel the injection? Our answer is a staircase of five steps – from flavoured numbing gel to nitrous oxide. We only ever take the lowest step that is enough.

![Wooden figure of a sleeping sloth hanging deeply relaxed under a branch, smiling blissfully](https://f80.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/f80-lachgas-faultier-berlin.webp)

- **Practice** — Friedrichstraße 80 10117 Berlin-Mitte
- **Under nitrous oxide** — Your child stays awake and responsive
- **After the appointment** — Fully breathed out after about 15 minutes
- **Numbing gel** — A flavoured gel – your child chooses

## Fear and pain are two different problems

They often get lumped together, but they need different answers. Pain can be switched off reliably – that is what local anaesthesia is for, and it works well in children. Fear cannot be switched off that way: a child who is afraid of the appointment is still afraid once the tooth has long gone numb.

That is why we work on both separately. Against pain stand the numbing gel and the local anaesthetic. Against tension stand announcing every step, taking our time, an agreed pause signal – and if that is not enough, nitrous oxide or hypnosis. Serve only one of the two sides and you get either a bravely silent but frightened child – or a relaxed child that still flinches.

What we do not offer: **sedation.** No calming syrup, no twilight sleep. In our paediatric dentistry we deliberately keep to three paths – nitrous oxide, hypnosis and, when nothing else works, general anaesthesia. Everything in between that makes a child drowsy without truly protecting it we consider the worse compromise.

## Five steps, and we always start at the bottom

The following steps build on each other. Each one is only taken when the one below is not enough for your child, for the tooth and for the procedure. Most appointments end on step one or two.

1. **Announce and allow time** — Costs nothing, achieves the most: every step is explained beforehand, in words a child understands – shown first, then done. Raising a hand means pause, and this signal applies just the same on every further step. — Many treatments need nothing beyond this.
2. **Flavoured numbing gel** — A gel on the gum so the needle prick cannot be felt. Your child picks the flavour. For small fillings this alone is often the whole difference between a good appointment and a bad one.
3. **Local anaesthetic** — The actual pain control at the tooth. It comes after the numbing gel, not instead of it – and it is the reason a treatment can be pain-free at all.
4. **Nitrous oxide or hypnosis** — For when the tension is too great for words and pacing alone. Both paths keep your child awake and responsive. They stand side by side – which one fits depends on the child, and they can be combined.
5. **General anaesthesia** — The last resort, after medical assessment: for very extensive treatment needs, for very young children, or when everything else has failed. An anaesthetist takes over the anaesthesia and monitoring. — Holding a child down is not part of any step.

This order is not a ranking from brave to fearful. Which step fits depends as much on the procedure as on the child: a chalky tooth can require a higher step than a calm child would ever need.

## The numbing before the numbing

Before any injection, we numb the spot where it will go. We apply a gel to the gum – usually on a small cotton pellet pressed right onto the spot. After one to two minutes the surface is numb and the prick can no longer be felt.

The active substance is the same as in the injection, just in a form that soaks through the mucosa instead of passing through a needle. The technical term is topical anaesthesia. For your child it means: the cotton bud with the flavour comes first.

### Why the flavour is not a gimmick

The gel is mixed for us at the pharmacy, and the flavour can be chosen in the process. Your child picks.

It sounds like a side note, but it is the point where the appointment turns: a child who gets to choose the flavour makes the first decision of the visit itself – before anything happens that it cannot control. Whoever chooses is no longer waiting passively. And there is the practical effect: a gel that tastes good is not swallowed away or wiped off, it stays where it is supposed to work.

![Diagram: three small gel jars with cherry, banana and strawberry symbols; a cotton bud takes gel from one jar](https://f80.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/f80-diagramm-gel-sorten.webp)

### What the numbing gel cannot do

It does not replace the injection. The gel numbs the top few millimetres of the mucosa, for a few minutes – enough for the prick, not enough for treating the tooth. Anyone promising that treatment works entirely without anaesthesia as long as the gel tastes good enough is promising too much.

And it needs time. One to two minutes sound like nothing, but in a treatment room they are long. This is exactly where people cut corners when rushed – and exactly then the child feels the prick after all. We wait out the time. It is planned into the appointment.

![Diagram: a cotton bud dabs a drop of gel onto the gum line next to a molar, the numbed zone is stippled](https://f80.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/f80-diagramm-vorbetaeubung-gel.webp)

## How we give the injection in a child-friendly way

1. **Announce without alarming** — In the treatment room we do not talk about syringes, needles or pricks – but we do not lie either. Your child learns that the tooth is now being put to sleep, that pressing can be part of it, and that raising a hand is allowed.
2. **Apply the gel and wait** — Gel on the pellet, pellet on the spot, one to two minutes of pause. That time is perfect for explaining what happens next.
3. **Inject slowly** — Most of the sting comes not from the needle but from fluid flowing in too fast. Numbed slowly means numbed almost unnoticed.
4. **Wait for the effect and test it** — Only when the tooth is safely numb do we continue. We ask and test instead of assuming. — Anaesthetics work less well on chalky teeth – we plan for that.

### The lip bite: the real topic after the appointment

The most common complication after anaesthesia in children is not a medical problem but a curious one: the numb feeling lasts much longer than the treatment – often two to three hours – and feels strange. Children explore it by chewing on their lip or cheek. Because they feel nothing, they do not stop in time. The wound only shows in the evening, when the anaesthetic wears off.

What helps: nothing solid to eat and nothing hot to drink until the numbness is gone – a yoghurt or a cool drink are fine. And give your child a task instead of a ban: checking together in the mirror whether the lip is "still there" works better than "don't bite it". If something did happen: a bitten lip looks worse on day one than it is and usually heals by itself. If there is major swelling, call us.

![Diagram: molar with cotton bud and gel drop at the gum line](https://f80.berlin/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/f80-diagramm-vorbetaeubung-gel.webp)

## What nitrous oxide is – and what it is not

Nitrous oxide is a gas your child breathes in through a small mask on the nose, mixed with oxygen. It eases tension, dampens the gag reflex and lowers pain sensitivity. The nickname "laughing gas" is misleading: children do not laugh under it, they become calm. At our practice the treatment is carried out by our dentist Inke Supantia.

### What it is

A wakeful state: your child has its eyes open, listens, answers and can ask for a pause at any time. The amount can be adjusted up and down at any moment, the effect follows within seconds. And it is gone again quickly: nitrous oxide does not enter the metabolism, it is breathed out unchanged.

### What it is not

Not anaesthesia – your child does not sleep and does not lose consciousness. Not a substitute for the local anaesthetic – what would hurt still hurts under nitrous oxide, the injection stays. And not sedation in the sense of drifting away: the technical term is "minimal sedation", and the word *minimal* is exactly the point. A child drifting off under nitrous oxide has received too much.

For context: the machines in a dental practice deliver at most 50 percent nitrous oxide, the rest is oxygen. This limit is not caution but a requirement of the professional societies – higher concentrations can lead into deep sedation and belong in the hands of an anaesthetist. In practice, 20 to 30 percent is often enough for children.

### A nitrous oxide session, step by step

1. **Getting to know the mask** — First comes just the nasal mask, without gas. Your child may touch it, put it on, take it off again. A child who does not like it does not get nitrous oxide – nothing is forced here.
2. **Pure oxygen** — The first breaths are pure oxygen. Your child notices: nothing unpleasant happens, and breathing through the nose works.
3. **Increase slowly** — Then the nitrous oxide is added, in small steps. After about a minute a warm, light feeling sets in; some children describe tingling in their hands or feet. We stay at the amount at which your child is relaxed and responsive – no more.
4. **The treatment** — Only now does the actual treatment begin – with numbing gel and local anaesthetic as always. The pause signal still applies.
5. **Five minutes of oxygen** — At the end the ratio flips: five minutes of pure oxygen. That is not a ritual – it makes sure the nitrous oxide is breathed out completely.
6. **Going home** — After about a quarter of an hour nothing of it is left. Your child can eat and play as normal; nursery or school on the same day are no problem. The only restriction is the numbness in the mouth, not the nitrous oxide. — An adult accompanies the child and stays throughout the treatment.

## When nitrous oxide is not an option

Nitrous oxide is well studied and explicitly recommended by the paediatric dental societies – but not for every day and not for every child. We go through these points before every appointment.

### The most common reasons to postpone or plan differently

- **A blocked nose** — The most common and most annoying reason: nitrous oxide is breathed through the nose – with a cold that does not work. If your child is blocked up on the morning of the appointment, please call us instead of coming. We would rather reschedule.
- **A middle ear infection** — Acute or only just over: nitrous oxide can expand in air-filled cavities. In that case we wait.
- **If your child does not want to** — Nitrous oxide requires cooperation. A child that refuses the mask does not get it put on. Then we talk about another path – that is not a failure, it is information.
- **Certain pre-existing conditions** — More severe airway diseases, a vitamin B12 deficiency and some other conditions speak against nitrous oxide. That is why we ask about illnesses and medication beforehand – please mention even things that seem unimportant to you.
- **Very long or very extensive procedures** — Nitrous oxide carries short, plannable treatments. When a lot has to be done at once, general anaesthesia is often the more honest path than three abandoned attempts.

### Nothing ticked

Then from a distance nothing speaks against the appointment. The binding answer comes from the consultation – there we go through health and medication once in full.

### Please talk to us beforehand

One or more points apply – that does not mean nitrous oxide is off the table. But it does mean: please call briefly before the appointment. A rescheduled session is better than one that does not work.

## Hypnosis – the path entirely without medication

Dental hypnosis has nothing to do with stage shows and nothing with losing control. It is focused attention: the child becomes so absorbed in a story, an image or a memory that the treatment moves to the edge of its awareness. Children are usually better at this than adults, because they slip into imaginary worlds more easily anyway.

In practice that means: a calm voice, a story your child appears in, a place it likes to be. It stays responsive, can interrupt at any time and remembers the appointment afterwards.

### What hypnosis can achieve

Lower tension, dampen the gag reflex, make the time in the chair feel shorter – and for a child that refuses masks or equipment, clear the way without adding anything. Nitrous oxide and hypnosis do not exclude each other; some children do best with the combination.

### Where it reaches its limits

It does not replace the local anaesthetic – what would hurt also hurts in deep relaxation. It needs a child willing to engage, and calm in the room; with acute pain and time pressure it is rarely the right entry point. And it does not work equally well for every child – that only shows in the attempt.

## What you can do before and after the appointment

### Before

Your child does not have to fast – ideal is a light meal one to two hours beforehand, because children with a completely full or completely empty stomach are more likely to feel sick under nitrous oxide. Report a blocked nose on the morning of the appointment by phone. And announce the appointment casually: sentences like "it won't hurt" or "no need to be scared" plant exactly what they are meant to prevent.

### After

Wait with eating until the numb feeling is gone – usually two to three hours – and watch lip and cheek until then. The nitrous oxide itself leaves nothing that limits the day: nursery, school, sport and playground are fine as always. And do not debrief the appointment at length – a short "you did really well" carries further than a long review.

> A 2018 Cochrane review analysed fifty randomised trials with 3,704 children on calming methods during dental treatment. Its result is more sober than advertising often sounds: the studies were so different that no summary effectiveness figure could be calculated for nitrous oxide alone.

*Ashley et al., Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2018, CD003877 – [PMID 30566228](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30566228/). That an effect is statistically hard to pin down does not mean the method is useless – children, procedures and measures are too different for a single number. Safety is another matter: there the data are good, and the dental and anaesthesiology societies explicitly recommend nitrous oxide for minimal sedation in children – under clear requirements for concentration, training and monitoring. That is why we promise no success rate, but explain which step we suggest and why.*

## What insurance covers and what is private

### How the services divide up

- **Treatment and local anaesthetic** — The dental treatment itself and the local anaesthetic it requires are covered by statutory health insurance for children and adolescents.
- **Flavoured numbing gel** — We do not bill it separately – for us it is part of the treatment, not an item on an extras list.
- **Nitrous oxide and hypnosis** — Private additional services; statutory insurance does not usually cover them, billing follows the official dental fee schedule. What that means in your case you learn in the consultation and in writing before anything begins – nothing should appear on the invoice that you read there for the first time.
- **Supplementary dental insurance** — If you have one for your child, a look at the terms beforehand pays off: some plans reimburse nitrous oxide in part.

## Frequently asked questions about nitrous oxide and numbing in children

### From what age is nitrous oxide possible?

More important than age is whether your child wants to cooperate and can reliably breathe through the nose – as a guideline, roughly from nursery age. A very cooperative four-year-old often does better than an eight-year-old who refuses the mask. Whether it fits is shown by the consultation – and if need be by a dry run with the mask.

### Is nitrous oxide harmful for my child?

Used correctly, serious incidents are very rare. The gas is not metabolised in the body but breathed out completely; after about a quarter of an hour nothing is detectable. Nausea or slight dizziness occur, mainly with too high a dose or a very full stomach. No medical procedure is entirely without risk – whoever claims otherwise is leaving something out. That is why we ask about pre-existing conditions beforehand and stay at the smallest possible amount.

### Will my child fall asleep under nitrous oxide?

No. Your child stays awake, has its eyes open, listens and can answer. All protective reflexes – swallowing, coughing – remain intact. If a child drifts off under nitrous oxide, the dose is too high; that is exactly why it is increased slowly and adjusted continuously.

### Is an injection still needed?

Yes, as soon as work is done on the tooth. Nitrous oxide takes away tension and dampens pain perception, but it does not numb the tooth. The good news: under nitrous oxide, exactly the moment most children fear most is much easier to bear – and with the numbing gel often not felt at all.

### Does my child have to fast?

No. Unlike before general anaesthesia, fasting is not required for nitrous oxide. We recommend a light meal one to two hours beforehand – that makes nausea least likely.

### How long does the numbness last, and when may my child eat again?

Usually two to three hours, depending on amount and site. Until the feeling is fully back, your child should not eat anything solid or drink anything hot – not because of the treatment, but because it would otherwise bite its lip or cheek without noticing.

### Why does the anaesthetic work less well in my child than in others?

It can be down to the tooth. On chalky teeth (MIH) and on heavily inflamed teeth, local anaesthesia demonstrably works less well. Do tell us if earlier appointments were painful for this reason – then we plan differently: with other anaesthesia techniques, if need be with nitrous oxide or general anaesthesia. More on our page about [chalky teeth](https://f80.berlin/en/treatments/molar-incisor-hypomineralisation/).

### Can we simply try nitrous oxide first?

Yes, and that is often the best entry. We put the mask on without gas, your child breathes through the nose twice and then decides for itself. An appointment that ends with a mask test is not a lost appointment.

### May I stay with my child as a parent?

Yes. An adult companion stays with the child. What helps: being there, holding a hand, staying calm. What rarely helps: talking along while the child is talking with us. We tell you beforehand how you can support best.

### Will my child get a calming syrup at your practice?

No. In our paediatric dentistry we deliberately work without sedation. There are three paths: nitrous oxide, hypnosis and, when nothing else works, general anaesthesia under the care of an anaesthetist. Making a child half drowsy without truly monitoring it is, for us, the worse compromise.

## Talk to us beforehand – not only in the treatment room

Which step fits your child we clarify in peace: in an appointment where nothing is done. Your child gets to know the room, may try the mask and pick the flavour – and you ask all the questions that are open.

## Related treatments

## This page in other languages

- [Deutsch](https://f80.berlin/behandlungen/lachgas-und-vorbetaeubung/)
- [English](https://f80.berlin/en/treatments/nitrous-oxide-and-gentle-numbing/)
- [Русский](https://f80.berlin/ru/treatments/nitrous-oxide-and-gentle-numbing/)
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