Just How Safe Is DS in the Office for Pediatric Dental Surgery?

Background: Children often need deep sedation (DS) to receive necessary dental treatment. Children are more susceptible to respiratory-related adverse events (AEs) from DS or general anesthesia than adults. As the trend to provide DS outside of hospitals continues to increase, the safety of this modality of treatment needs to be evaluated. Objective: To assess the safety of dental treatment facilitated with DS at an outpatient dental clinic by determining the frequency and type of AEs through an electronic health record (EHR) review. Design: Retrospective study. Methods: EHRs of pediatric patients (aged Results: Of 369 EHRs, 175 were cases of DS with 31 possible AEs identified. After review by an expert panel, 19 AEs occurred in 15 cases. Thus, during the 3-year study period, 8.6% of patients experienced an AE. The sedation regimen was intramuscular ketamine followed by IV propofol. Overall, 55% of cases involved children aged Conclusions: An AE occurs in 1 of every 12 DS cases in pe more...