What is I.V. Conscious Sedation and who can benefit from it?
IV Sedation is used to deliver medications to a patient which make them very relaxed and create profound amnesia. The drugs make a long procedure seem short and for most patients the entire procedure is at best a vague blur – often there is no memory of the procedures performed. This all occurs while the patient is awake enough to follow verbal commands from the dental team. Compared with oral sedation, I.V. sedation allows for much more fine (and safe) control of the patient’s sedation level. Sedation medications and their reversal agents act immediately when delivered via intraveneous line. Oral sedation drugs require absorbtion from the gastro-intestinal tract which is slow and unpredictable. We use the same drugs used by medical doctors to perform colonoscopies and many other outpatients services. I.V sedation may benefit you if you are an extremely anxious dental patient, need to get a lot of work done in one appointment, have a significant gag reflex or high salivary secretions o
