[Swordmaker]

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.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I’d want to see a correct report before saying anything more in specific. A “local anesthetic” (e.g. Novocaine) isn’t sedation. However trying to get a 2 year old kid to let a dentist pull a tooth, even WITH Novocaine, is like, well, pulling teeth.

More caution may be worth it for certain populations. Science could continue on so as to be able to determine what those populations are. This is lives being talked about, after all. In an age when it’s easy to be so cold about abortion, I would be leery of other movements that go in parallel directions.

[wintertime]

I agree. This is a very confusing article that seems to conflate local anesthesia with sedation ( oral and/or IV). In the case of the 2 year old he may have been given more lidocaine ( a local anesthetic) than is recommended for a toddler but it is impossible to know from the article.

[Yaelle]

Thanks for your explanation.

There is a risk with anesthetic even in regular surgery, and so much depends on the patient. I’ve had two c sections where I ended up feeling the knife. Yeah not fun. (I have the red hair gene even though I’m blonde)

My son at 5 had something done, maybe a cavity, with the sleepy juice. When I got him home he was stoned out of his mind. Funniest moment: I had him on a king sized bed so he wouldn’t slam himself around and hurt his head, he was so out of it motor wise. He plopped his head face down into a big stuffed animal. With his face lying in the white fur, he said, “Mom! There’s a bunch of people in here! It’s a whole world!” Lol.

[libstripper]

Speaking from the standpoint of the 6 to 10 year old I was when a novacane averse dentist periodically tortured me. It was an utterly terrifying experience like having blue bolts of fire run through my head every time it happened. It only stopped when I grew large enough to resist. I still think my none too lovable mother secretly enjoyed me being tortured.

[steve86]

All of our young children have been given Versed followed by sevoflurane, with an anesthesiologist present. This is in Washington State and is routine under about age 8.