Conscious Sedation in Dental Surgery

These surgeries are generally painful and consume a lot of time. It is important to keep the patient in a dreamlike and relaxed state to suppress the anxiety and stress that a patient generally feels prior to surgery.

From the viewpoint of the doctor, sedation is recommended in dental implant surgery because it permits an easy performance while operating.

Sometimes sedation is required for patients suffering from dental phobia. Sedation is by far the best way for dentists to carry out dental surgery in a very worry free and stress free environment.

Sedation can be considered good because of the benefits that it offers. They are mentioned here:

• It allows the dentist as well as the patient to feel relaxed during surgery.
• There are different types of sedatives affecting in different ways and can be selected depending on the type of surgery.
• There are patients suffering from gag reflexes, Parkinson’s disease and have reduced control over their mouth. Thus, a dental surgery for them calls for sedation so that they are physically as well as mentally relaxed.
• The best part of sedation is that the feeling of pain is not there due to being in a relaxed state, and is better for the patient undergoing surgery.
• Sedation also gives increased control to the dentist of the mouth of an individual and makes surgery easier to perform.
• It is also beneficial for complicated surgeries like full mouth restoration and multiple implant dentistry.

Patients undergoing root canal therapy and periodontal surgery may ask for sedation. Sedatives work by depressing the CNS and markedly the areas concerned with conscious awareness. These are some of the reasons for the need of sedation while dental surgery. In a way, it is good because it is beneficial for both the patient as well as the doctor.

There are some risks involved with sedation and such risks are common to all drugs. Minimal sedation cannot be given to patients who are suffering from respiratory problems like asthma.
Intravenous sedation can be difficult for patients having needle phobia and hematoma at the puncture made by the needle can develop.

An independant qualified anaesthetist will attend the surgery and perform the conscious sedation, monitoring the patients vital signs during treatment. Some amnesia can occur during and following the procedure. The patient is semi conscious and able to respond to the surgeons instructions such as “open wide” but is in a relaxed state. The patient needs some time to recover after from sedation after the surgery and an adult must escort the patient home.

It can be concluded by saying that conscious sedation is a great help to those who have a phobia.