A growing issue in the dental industry, that most patients don’t realize, is the risks involved with ‘single model sedation’. This is when a dentist, administers IV sedation while also performing the dental procedure at the same time.
In a recent article in InvestigateTV, shows dentist are allowed to do something most doctors aren’t. Mrs. Patel’s husband Henry underwent IV sedation for a dental procedure, unfortunately endured irreversible injuries from lack of oxygen to his brain and passed away.
“It makes me so mad because Henry’s death was preventable. Absolutely preventable. I want people to know that,” Mrs. Patel said. “Henry died because the people who were looking after him in that room, in that office, were not trained. They didn’t even know my husband didn’t have a pulse.”
Through Henry’s death, Mrs. Patel learned something stunning. Dentists use vastly different standards than physicians when it comes to anesthesia. “No other medical field allows this. We call it the medical model. The only people who don’t follow it and they’re allowed not to follow it, are dentists,” she said.
Guidelines recommend second highly skilled provider assist with dental surgery
The medical model Mrs. Patel is referring to is likely what you’ve seen if you’ve been deeply sedated or given general anesthesia in a hospital or surgery center.
Under that model, a physician or certified registered nurse anesthetist, also known as a CRNA, administers the anesthesia and monitors your vital signs while another provider handles the procedure. That way there’s skilled backup available if a patient stops breathing or experiences other life-threatening complications.
But at dentists’ offices, state regulations nationwide often allow dentists to do something other medical professionals generally do not: handle both anesthesia and surgery.
Be sure and check back with us next week for more information on IV sedation for dentistry. Until then, contact Blue Sky Anesthesia Associates for more information.
