Conscious sedation is an innovative anesthetic technique that allows to reduce both anxiety and pain. During surgery patients will not fall completely asleep, that is, they will remain in a state of consciousness that will allow them to cooperate with the doctor for the procedure to be successful. Conscious sedation also works on the patients’ psychological perception, making them experience mild amnesia with obfuscated memories that will not allow them to calculate the time spent in the operating room.
For this reason conscious sedation allows you to work with the most fearful patients, or those who can experience bouts of anxiety or fear, an event known in the medical field as "dental phobia". The application of conscious sedation has shown excellent results, which is why it is considered one of the best anaesthetic techniques currently used in dental surgery.
The anesthetists who perform conscious sedation in the operating rooms are aware of the regulations regarding intravenous medication administration. The safest and most widely used combination of drugs involves a mix of anti-anxiety drugs and analgesics. The anesthetic effect of this combination is estimated to be around 80-90% and it remains active in patients for about 20-40 minutes, with the possibility of extending it by administering another microdose. Every patient’s main vital parametres are monitored throughout the whole operation: heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, and airway patency.
Conscious sedation is indicated in patients who have phobias or panic attacks, but it is also essential to perform dental treatment in children who have an uncooperative attitude or a disability. The indication of this procedure can also be extended to patients with a high risk profile (ASA III) and / or who are not willing to cooperate, as well as to patients with a low risk profile (ASA I and II) that require long and invasive interventions.