Evaluating the Efficacy of Intranasal Sedation in the Dental Setting: A Scoping Review

Intranasal sedation (INS) administration has gained popularity in dentistry. It is noninvasive, painless, and an easy-to-use drug delivery route. With the growing interest in INS, there is a need for a comprehensive review to assess its safety and efficacy and to explore the limitations in the existing literature.

This scoping review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of INS in the dental setting.

This scoping review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Ovid MEDLINE, Google Scholar, ClinicalTrials.gov, PROSPERO, and Cochrane Library were used to retrieve related articles.

The search process identified 1666 articles. Of these, 1594 were excluded, and 72 were independently assessed for eligibility. In the end, 48 articles with various types of studies were selected, including RCTs, clinical trials, pilot studies, case reports/series, retrospective, and prospective studies. The findings are presented narratively using text and tables.

This scoping review found that INS is an effective type of conscious sedation (CS) for dental procedures that could overcome some of the disadvantages of other CS techniques and general anesthesia. However, an interventional comparative matched study is needed to determine if INS can be effective alone without using other types of CS, and if a combination of drugs is required, or if a single drug can be effective and safe.