Dental Sedation Safety--IV Sedation, Oral sedation, Patient Safety

The Dental Organization for Conscious Sedation just completed its first annual Sedation Dentistry Safety Week!  This is important as patient safety should always be first priority in patient care.  Topics included "The Sedation Dentist Safety Checklist."  There are many things that all competent sedation dentists should do (and you should make certain that your dentist is doing). 
1)   Upmost is training.  The doctor should be trained minimally in oral conscious sedation by a competent organization.   To be more certain about sedation effectiveness, the doctor should be trained in IV sedation and properly certified to perform these services.  We HIGHLY recommend that the patient verify the training of the provider.
2)  Equally important is continuing education.  Medicine, pharmacology, and dentistry are constantly evolving and the education must be updated!
3)  The staff should also be trained not only in life support, but in emergency procedures.  Monthly training should continue to assure that skills are “kept sharp.”  We have our staff trained with IMEP—the Institute of Medical Emergency Preparedness, which also send out monthly office "drills" to keep skills up-to-date.
4)  The doctor should also maintain his skills in emergency medicine.  I would recommend for most to have their ACLS certification (advanced cardiac life support certification) .  Group such as American Dental Society of Anesthesiology also have advanced traing and even "human simulation" training for sedation dentistry doctors.
5)  Second the office should have the proper medications to use as needed—and they need to be up to date (not expired).
6)  The patient’s medications may need to researched to verify that no drug interactions exist that may preclude a safe and effective visit.
7)  Certain equipment is essential to monitor the patient’s condition during the entire procedure and during recovery.  Most essential is the pulse-oximeter which monitors the pulse, blood oxygen, and blood pressure.  Many of the worse “accidents” have occurred when these simple vital signs are not carefully monitored.
8)  Keeping the patient’s medical history completely updated so that the proper protocols are maintained at all times.
9)  Working with the patient’s physician as needed to verify and clarify the patient’s needs and condition.
10)  Should the patient’s physical or mental condition not be suitable for in-office sedation, the proper referrals to hospital or physician assisted procedures must be performed.

Patient’s have the right to speak freely to their health care providers about their concerns and safety.

  Dr. Gibbs provides sedation dentistry, comfortable dentistry, implant dentistry, and cosmetic dentistry for patients in the Chicago area.  He sees patients from Wheaton, Naperville, Lisle, Glendale Heights, Lombard, Schaumburg, Roselle, Elmhurst, Chicago,  Hoffman Estates, Warrenville, and Downers Grove.  Contact us at SmileGlenEllyn.com  Also visit us for information on implants and relaxed sedation dentistry at YouTube LiveWithoutDentures  He also publishes a separate informational websie on dental implants at chicagoimplantdentistry.com

Comments

[cosmetic dentistry los angeles]

Oral sedation is prescribed for relieving anxiety in the hours immediately before a dental appointment. An anti-anxiety or sedative-hypnotic drug taken the night before the appointment, an hour before going to bed, can help with falling asleep and getting some rest.

-heather-

[Richmond Hill Dentist]

I find many of my very anxious patient benefit from taking oral sedation prior to the procedure.