Oral sedation

"I fear a trip to the dentist more than I fear death" is the response one person gave in a national survey recently cited in USA Today. While clearly representing an extreme, the results of many surveys suggest that fear of dentistry is still prevalent and is a measure of the failure of current therapeutic approaches to reduce pain and anxiety sufficiently to enable people, especially those with special needs, to visit the dentist. Patients who are fearful would likely seek oral health care more regularly if anesthesia and sedation were more readily available. Taking into consideration that the safety of anxiolytic drugs is highly dependent on the drug, dose, and route of administration used, oral premedication should be the sedative technique used by most dentists because it is efficacious, requires little monitoring when appropriate doses are used, and is unlikely to result in serious morbidity.