{"id":7015,"date":"2025-06-16T06:48:48","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T13:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vistadoradadental.com\/blog\/?p=7015"},"modified":"2025-06-16T06:48:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-16T13:48:48","slug":"is-dental-sedation-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vistadoradadental.com\/blog\/is-dental-sedation-safe\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Dental Sedation Safe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I keep reading about how dental sedation can help someone with like me with severe dental anxiety. I was about to schedule an appointment, but then I read about a case where someone died because of sedation and the dentist was blamed. Is dental sedation really<\/i> safe? <\/p>\n

Emma<\/p>\n\n

Dear Emma,<\/p>\n

\"woman<\/p>\n

I think I know of the case you are talking about. In fact, if it is the case I’m thinking about (and it’s the only one I’ve heard of in years) a colleague of mine was actually called as an expert witness in this case. Before I go over the case for those who are unaware of what happened, I want to assure you that dental sedation is completely safe. <\/p>\n

The Wrongful Death Case<\/h2>\n

The patient was a 270-pound female with extreme dental anxiety. I do not mention her weight as a means of being cruel. It is actually quite relevant to the case. She was given 1.0 mg of Triazolam. This medication is commonly used for dental oral conscious sedation. This is a pill, which the patient is instructed to take at a certain time before<\/i> their appointment and will be taking affect by the time the patient arrives. When this patient arrived, she showed no signs of there being any issue. She entered without needing assistance and was able to communicate well.<\/p>\n

However, once she was given the local anesthetic, something every dental patient is given during a procedure even if they don’t use sedation, things changed. She quickly became unresponsive. She was taken to a hospital where she later died. <\/p>\n

The Iowa dental board asserted that the dentist gave the patient double the recommended dose of the sedation medication. The typical recommendation is 0.5 mg and she was given 1.0 mg. They accused the dentist of overdosing the patient. Here is why that is absolutely ridiculous and I’m dumbfounded as to why the board would even suggest it. <\/p>\n

In order to establish the safety of a medication, the recommended does isn’t the standard for evaluation. This is because some drugs have a very narrow safety margin and even giving a tiny amount over the recommendation is dangerous, but for other drugs (like
\ntriazolam) there is a HUGE safety margin. <\/p>\n

I won’t get too technical, but if you want all the technical details please write again and I will give you all the data. The maximum safe dose of a drug is the LD-50, which is when 50% of the animals in the clinical trial died. Tested on mice, which are extremely small compared to even a normal sized human, the recommended does is no greater than 1,000 mg\/kg. When you are talking about a woman who is 270 pounds, which is a little over 120 kg. That would mean she was safe to have up to 120,000 mg of the medication. <\/p>\n

Obviously, the dentist didn’t give her anywhere near that. There was no overdose from the dentist. The coroner didn’t give an official cause of death, which is odd. The patient did have a history of drug use, so (and please understand I’m just wondering about this next statement, I have no documentation) I wonder if she’d taken something else along with the medicine her dentist gave her or if given her physical condition combined with the stress it was just too much for her. <\/p>\n

Bottom line, dental sedation<\/a> is very safe. In fact, patients with dental anxiety find that it completely changes their life for the better and they are finally able to get the dental care they need. <\/p>\n

This blog is brought to you by Gilbert Dentist<\/a> Dr. Matt Roper.
\nClick here to learn how he tries to keep dental care affordable<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I keep reading about how dental sedation can help someone with like me with severe dental anxiety. I was about to schedule an appointment, but then I read about a case where someone died because of sedation and the dentist was blamed. Is dental sedation really safe? Emma Dear Emma, I think I know of … Continue reading Is Dental Sedation Safe?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[75,28,175,643,24,496],"class_list":["post-7015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sedation-dentistry","tag-affordable-dentist","tag-dental-anxiety","tag-oral-conscious-sedation","tag-safety-of-dental-sedation","tag-sleep-dentistry","tag-triazolam"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Dental Sedation Safe? - Vista Dorada Dental Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is dental sedation safe for patients?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vistadoradadental.com\/blog\/is-dental-sedation-safe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Dental Sedation Safe? 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