October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month and if you’ve ever taken care of someone with a disability, you understand the challenges that exist.
Those with Down’s syndrome are predisposed to have oral health issues, including, misaligned, missing, or malformed teeth. On top of that, they tend to have a higher percent of periodontal disease and gingivitis. To prevent such issues from progressing, those with Down’s syndrome tend to need frequent deep cleaning to reduce tooth loss.
To complicate matters, many of those with Down’s syndrome have bite problems and low manual dexterity, which often results in poor oral care.
IV sedation is a safe way to provide dental care for someone with developmental disabilities. It is especially helpful if there are several procedures that need to be preformed. A single appointment can take care of everything.
There is no need to put your loved one through a taxing situation or unnecessary distress for an extraction or root canal, even a cleaning can cause someone with Down’s syndrome anxiety. Sedation dentistry has been playing a major role in helping improve the dental experience for many people, old and young alike.
The preferred method of sedation is IV sedation because it is tailored to fit their individual needs, offers a deep level of sedation, and has rapid results. You wake up from a great nap and everything is done, it’s as simple as that!
The Journal of the American Dental Association published a paper entitled How safe is deep sedation or general anesthesia while providing dental care?
The ability to provide deep sedation and general anesthesia in the office-based setting allows for many positive outcomes. These include comfort and convenience for the patient as well as the dentist, ease of scheduling as compared to a hospital-based or outpatient setting and often a significant cost savings for the patient as well as cost efficiency for the dentist. This treatment approach should never be looked at as a negative experience for the patient.
Too often, it is assumed that the provision of general anesthesia must be provided in the hospital or outpatient setting. In addition, it is sometimes mischaracterized as an excessive treatment approach. This is just not true and has the potential to prevent the delivery of dental services for this fragile and vulnerable patient population. In fact, the delivery of safe, effective anesthesia for patients receiving treatment in the office-based setting has been provided for decades and has a very strong record of safety and success.
