Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR
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J Intellect Disabil Res · Nov 2004
Intravenous sedation for dental patients with intellectual disability.
The poor quality of oral health care for people with intellectual disability (ID) has been recognized, and the strong fears about dental treatment suggested as a major reason for disturbances of visits to dentists by such patients. Intravenous sedation is a useful method for relieving the anxiety and fear of such patients about dental treatment, and is frequently essential for ID patients undergoing dental treatment. However, decision regarding the dose of sedative required to be administered for an adequate level of sedation is difficult because the effect of sedation cannot be adequately assessed in patients with severe ID. As an appropriate sedative dose for dental patients with ID has not been fully established, we investigated sedative doses required and the effect of sedation in patients with ID, compared with other dental patients. ⋯ The results of this study show that intravenous sedation is a useful method for dental patients with ID as well as for other dental patients, but indicate that dental patients with ID need higher doses of sedative to obtain an adequate level of sedation.