I am going in for a dental procedure and my dentist suggested oral conscious sedation because I am an anxious patient. I was fine with that and then I was in an online forum. It wasn’t even a dental forum and I happened to mention that I was getting sedation and I hope my roommate doesn’t film me. Then, I got a flood of replies about how people die from dental sedation. Only one person linked any documentation. It talked about a case in Arizona where someone died of complications from dental surgery and all the dentist got was continuing education in sedation. Am I at greater risk?
Bree
Dear Bree,
Oh, you have to love the internet. At least one person put some documentation. That helps. And, I’m familiar with this case. Let me start by putting your mind at ease right away by saying that oral conscious sedation (OCS) is very safe.
There are many types of dental sedation. In the case you learned about, here are the types of sedation their office made available to patients:
- Local anesthesia
- Nitrous oxide sedation
- IV sedation, which they call “twilight sedation”
- General anesthesia administered in the office
- Hospital-based general anesthesia
Notice that your type of sedation wasn’t even offered there. In this particular case the patient received general anesthesia administered in the office. This is the type of sedation with the greatest risk factors. When I did some digging on this case, it appears the man had taken cannabis before his appointment, which raises the risk of throat spasms and can cause the throat to close up during anesthesia. The dentist argued that he was communicative and lucid when he arrived so he was unaware of the cannabis.
This is an important thing to mention to you. Even though you aren’t doing general anesthesia, any medication you take (including over the counter) will impact how your sedation works. Make sure you tell your dentist so that he can adjust accordingly.
As I mentioned before, OCS is extremely safe. In fact, it has changed the lives of patients with severe dental anxiety who were previously unable to get their dental work done.
This blog is brought to you by a gentle dentist in Lexington, KY, Dr. James Williams, a metal-free dentist.