What is Nitrous with regard to dentistry?

There are other ways of getting anesthesia - local injections of novacaine, for instance, but nitrous oxide is probably more pleasant. It is not a narcotic or opiate, and I'm not even sure if they ever give narcotics for dental work.

Nitrous oxide is conscious sedation; you are not knocked out but fully awake. Also called laughing gas, it makes you "high" so that you do not care if something is going to hurt or not. You still need local anesthesia for dental work because nitrous does not numb at all.

At the end of the dental procedure, your lungs are flushed with pure oxygen to rid the nitrous from your system.

Nitrous oxide. It just sort of relaxes you so you feel what's going on but you really don't care. It's pretty fun actually :P You're totally awake the whole time. It's nothing that would be addictive. If it's MAJOR dental work though, I'd use an anesthetic.