Using intravenous sedation to manage adults with neurological impairment

Dental care for most medically compromised patients can be accomplished if dentists understand the patients' specific medical conditions and use standard conservative behavioral or physical modifications to prevent complications from occurring. However, in patients who have certain types of neurological conditions, specifically Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia, dental management typically presents a greater challenge, because, in most kinds of dementia, patients are unable to follow directions or cooperate with simple instructions such as opening their mouths or holding their heads still. This report describes a three-year retrospective chart review of patients, diagnosed with a neurologic impairment, who underwent intravenous sedation at the Department of Veterans' Affairs Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. The goals of this review were to investigate the average doses of commonly used sedative agents, review complications as a result of the sedation, and comment on the safety of intravenous sedation as a means to treat elderly adults with a neurological disability.