Intravenous Sedation in Dentistry: Can You Really Relax in Dentist’s Chair?

Abstract

Background
Dental-related anxiety and fear have long been an issue, and it keep millions of people away from the dental office every year. Despite the advances in pain control that has expanded our abilities to perform a wide range of dental treatment in a pain-free environment, many adult dental patients still have a great deal of fear about treatment evoked pain. For them, local anesthesia is not enough because while it numbs the pain, it does nothing to minimize the fear and other psychological factors. For this group of individuals, discussions concerning conscious sedation and perhaps general anesthesia appear reasonable when making treatment plans. The provision of adequate anxiety control is an integral part of the practice of dentistry. All patients deserve appropriate anxiety control for any dental procedure. As patient awareness of the risk of anaesthesia and the availability of sedation have increased, so the popularity of conscious sedation for dentistry has increased. It is important to recognize that there is no “one size fits all” sedation technique and no single technique will be successful for all patients. Intravenous sedation is more potent and quicker-acting than inhalation or oral sedation and is particularly effective for very anxious or phobic dental patients and for difficult surgical procedures.

This presentation is about the conscious sedation techniques that we have been following in our department. The presentation will also share our experiences with management of anxious dental patients under conscious sedation.