"Is it safe?"
You can die from drinking too much water. Life is dangerous.
A rotten molar in a 2 year old ? Bad parents ?
"Is it safe?"
Two of the three dentists in our office are licensed for sedation. . . and one is an examiner for the California Board of Sedation Dentistry who is certified to examine other dentists who are seeking that specialized license.
Sedation runs from a simple tablet intended to relax a patient to full intravenous intended to put a patient into an unconscious state. Various levels of monitoring is required at each type. A properly trained response is required with each up to and including calling 911 and getting emergency assistance.
Full monitoring equipment is present for some sedation. Some of what our doctors do is full oral surjury, such as placing full jaw implants.
This emotion laden article is heavy on hyperbole and very short on fact. Yes, there are the occasional bad result from some sedation protocols, but that is the case even when you do have a anaesthesiologist standing right there. There is a risk attendant to anything. Sedation Dentistry has a long and successful history in California with few disasters, but those disasters are sometimes unavoidable because one is working with people who will have unforeseen and unforseeable reactions to the sedation drugs.
To require an anaestheisiologist to be present for every sedation procedure would be a step backwards in California Dentistry, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of simple procedures, and cause many dental phobic people to avoid getting the procedures they need done at all. Certainly, the dental benefits (pre-paid insurance) which is usually only $1000 or $1500 in a calendar year, could not even approach the added costs to cover including an anaesthesiologist. Such plans already balk at paying for the sedation administered by the dentists and usually treat it as a patient option.
I am probably the only person alive who enjoyed having teeth pulled with only a local
This article reads like it was written by a high school dropout who had a dog in the fight.
LOCAL anesthesia? The boys died from lidocaine? So sad, but how could a dentist remove a tooth in a 2-year-old without it?
I’ve had sleep dentistry twice (same dentist); always had an excellent recovery; no bad after effects.
And, I’m so confident of his skills as a dentist, I’m going back for a third trip very soon; and I expect to experience the same results as the first two.
As a retired board certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon I always get perturbed with these articles. There are dentists and there are dentists. Not to specify who the treating dentist is, is unfair to the profession and paints everyone with the same brush. My four years of post graduate training after dental school was intensive in hospital and outpatient based anesthesia and sedation. I practiced over 35 years and did thousands of anesthesia and sedation cases. On any day something bad can happen and even the best of providers (even MD’s and CRNA’s) can have bad outcomes. There is always a piling on to sensationalize the unfortunate situations. If someone is negligent or not trained to standards (my own society of OMS requires this) then surely there should be repercussions. To the countless number of patients who benefit from safe, skilled and cost efficient office based anesthesia and sedation these attacks against the whole dental profession is unwarranted and inaccurate.