Do you do in office sedation for kids? The short answer is yes. What is sedation? The type of sedation we use for children is called oral conscious sedation. There is a continuum of affect that the sedation can have on your child from a very minimal reduction of anxiety, but still quite normal interaction, but just a reduction of anxiety, all the way to your child being quite drowsy and uncoordinated and unable to speak in coherent sentences. And they may even fall asleep. But oral conscious sedation means that your child is always able to maintain their own airway, in other words they can breathe on their own without assistance. This method of behaviour modification can be very helpful in a very anxious child, nervous child, a child which has a lot of dental treatment needs, many cavities and it avoids having to take your child to the hospital and put them to sleep.

Great candidates for oral conscious sedation in office include a child of a normal average BMI, height and weight with non-significance medical history. Certainly no history of asthma, any airway issues of sorts, full term birth and certainly no congenital abnormalities. Tonsil size is also an important indicator. Some children have very large tonsils and they are not good candidates for oral conscious sedation because of their small airways.

It is important that your pediatric dentist be able assess each child on an individual basis to determine wither or not they are good candidates suitable for oral conscious sedation.

Children who are not suitable for oral sedation include; pre cooperate children of age two or one as they are not able to follow verbal instruction of any sort, they are best treated in a hospital environment, put to sleep, any child with significant medical history including asthma, with previous hospitalizations, any other airway issues, any children with syndromes. However, some children with ADHD or who are on the autism spectrum may be suitable candidates for oral sedation in consultation with their pediatric dentist.