Pharmacological conscious sedation is an anesthetic technique that represents a true revolution in the field of oral surgery, although it is already well known and used in general medicine for endoscopic exams or minor procedures.
The main objective is to mitigate the patient’s emotional responses, such as anxiety and panic attacks, which can arise during a surgical procedure or in the phases preceding it, providing the patient with a state of relaxation (an intermediate state between wakefulness and sleep), retrograde amnesia, and pain control, as well as fewer post-operative effects. It is useful not only in surgery but also for routine treatments in phobic patients who can thus have longer and more resolutive sessions without problems.
Conscious sedation does not result in the loss of protective reflexes such as autonomous breathing; it also allows the patient to respond appropriately to physical stimuli and verbal commands (remaining conscious and cooperative).
Sometimes some patients choose sedation for a reduced perception of what is happening; others because they are very sensitive in the mouth and have an accentuated gag reflex, for which even simple procedures (like fillings) could constitute an insurmountable problem; others simply because they are phobic or very worried even about minor procedures.
In all these cases, pharmacological sedation can be chosen to perform multiple interventions in a single session with less emotional stress, even if they are minor.
Depending on the clinical case and the type of intervention, the need for conscious sedation is evaluated together with a professional anesthetist responsible for the procedure, who will assess the patient’s suitability through specific clinical information, blood tests, and instrumental investigations. The patient is continuously monitored during all phases of sedation with appropriate multiparameter monitors to always have the clinical situation under control, and the drugs used are all rapidly and completely reversible in action.
