Using Sedation in Dentistry
The Sedation Dental Care Standard
The standard of treating patients using sedation was set by physicians in the U.S. approximately 40 years ago
. It is nothing new for patients to be sedated for operations
on knees, feet, wrists, ears, noses, or practically anything else. A lady
told me the other day, "I had to go in for an MRI
(a type of x-ray). I was very nervous so my doctor
sedated me." Often patients ask dentists for
sedation and the dentists do everything they can to
talk them out of it. Most dentists do not want to go
through the additional training and accreditation process
that is necessary to sedate patients.
You wouldn't think of having an ear operation or a nose
operation without sedation. But, you move one inch to
the teeth and it becomes acceptable to endure time-consuming,
strenuous, noisy, and uncomfortable procedures on the
most sensitive, personal part of the body (the mouth)
with no sedation. Dentists attempt to work outside of
the already established standard of using sedation.
As a result, we as dentists treat only 50% of the population
while physicians treat over 90%.
I have found that fearful patients psychologically have no
problem being sedated for dental treatment. You ask
a nervous patient, "Would you rather have this
work done in six appointments over the next two months
or in one appointment while you sleep?", and they
look at you like you're crazy. "Put me to sleep,"
is their reply.
Sedation for certain types of dental care has been used
for over thirty years. If you asked one hundred patients
who have had their wisdom teeth removed how they had
it done, most would say they were put to sleep by an oral surgen to have
them removed. The problem is that dentists assume that
root canals and drilling on teeth is not comfortable enough to warrant sedation.
This is why 50% of the population does not go to the
dentist. The patient is the one who should determine
what is uncomfortable for them, not
the dentist.
If you feel that sedation, which is the standard of
care for the rest of the body, is necessary for your
dental care, call us.
Type of Sedation
The sedation we utilize is oral sedation (pills). We
use pills for several reasons:
- Many of our patients are needle-phobic so they would
not like to be told that we must use a needle to sedate
them.
- With oral sedation we can work on patients for a
longer period of time.
- Oral sedation is very safe.
- The pills stay in a patients system for several hours
after the appointment, so we get few complaints of pain
after procedures are completed.
How You Will Feel
As you can read in our Patient Testimonials,
our patients' perception of this conscious sedation technique
is they feel that they have slept through the appointment.
We most commonly hear, "I remember taking
some pills and the next thing I remember is waking up
with my teeth fixed." Most patients remember nothing
about their treatment. A few will remember a little,
usually at the end of the appointment when we are getting
them ready to go home. You will need someone to bring
you to our office on the day of your sedation appointment
and you MUST have someone take you home afterwards.
Sedation Training
Dr. Dan Davidian has specialized training in Advanced Life Support Skills at UNC. Dr. Davidian is currently a member and received extensive training in sedation from the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology. He has worked in and trained at numerous prestigious hospitals and dental facilities including: Carolinas Medical Center, Kino Community Hospital, and Fayetteville VA.
Dr. Tracy Davidian attended Montefiore Medical Center in New York, where she received certification in patient management with Oral, IV, and Nitrous Sedation techniques. She is currently a member and received aditional training from the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology.
Dr. Tom Pezdek received his sedation training at New York Medical College Department of Oral Surgery. This course was implemented by the American Society for the Advancement of Anesthesia in Dentistry, approved by the American Dental Association and the Academy of General Dentistry and is given in cooperation with the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology. Dr. Pezdek teaches this technique, along with how to treat high fear patients, to dentists practicing nationwide.
Safety
The reason that we use this oral sedation technique
is because of its safety. The pill that we use is a
common sleeping pill. In 1996, for example, 1,700,000
of these pills were taken by people, not on an annual
basis, not on a monthly basis but on a daily basis.
An average of 1.7 million of these sleeping pills were
taken daily. The 1996 total was 621,000,000 tablets
taken. The vast majority of these tablets were taken
by patients at home to help them sleep at night. We
give our patients more than they would take at home
but we use state of the art hospital type monitoring
equipment to assess the patients pulse, oxygen saturation
in the blood, and blood pressure.
Decision
The only thing standing between you and getting the
dental care you want is a couple of tablets of medication.
It couldn't be simpler.
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