Course:

To the dental professional team:  Fear has no boundaries. It can affect all types of people. There is no age, sex, 
economic, or race discrimination guidelines. Research shows that almost 30% of 
our population avoids going to the dentist due to fear. Our personal estimate is 
closer to 50% where anxiety is the culprit for avoiding needed care. When you 
realize that a huge segment of the population is in desperate need of our service 
but are too afraid to seek us out, then it is easy to see why a safe, nonjudgmental, pain-free experience would be a welcome change to the anxietystricken patient. 
This intravenous conscious sedation course was designed to bring to your 
attention the incredible need in our profession to offer sedation dentistry to this 
un-served mass of patients. A depth of information will be presented to help you 
incorporate this much-needed care into your practice. Specific requirements will 
be presented in order to make you aware of the important commitment 
necessary to safely and effectively treat patients with IV conscious sedation. 
This course is not intended as an exhaustive study of all the implications of 
sedation dentistry. The learning curve for any technique is different for each of 
us. To be successful in offering sedation dentistry you need to make a 
commitment to explore the educational opportunities available to advance your 
understanding and expertise in this specialized field. It is no secret that Success 
is a Journey, not a Destination. 
To be totally successful with sedation dentistry in your practice you must learn 
more than just the technical skills. You must understand the emotional state of 
the high-fear patient. This will involve taking the time to actively listen to those 
who have avoided dentistry for years because of intense, realistic, palmsweating, sick-to-the-stomach, eye-popping, and sleep depriving fear. 
It is a well-known fact that many people are often afraid to tell anyone about their 
fear, so they feel isolated. You must be their rock in these situations and let 
them know that you understand their fear and that is okay for them to feel the 
way they do. Using compassion and verbal skills you will be able to convey to 
them that you do take their fear seriously, that you know they are not being silly, 
and that you care about their emotional needs as well as their dental needs. 
If the patient fears one visit to the dentist, imagine their frustration when they find 
out that because they have not attended to their dental health over the years, 
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that they may have to have numerous appointments, over many months, to 
complete their care. This is always received as discouraging news and often 
becomes the deciding factor in NOT having their needed dentistry done.
So, we pose the obvious question and ask, “If there was a way, with sedation, 
that our patients could have their treatment accomplished in minimal visits, with 
no pain and little memory of this experience, would this be more encouraging?” 
And the answer is an obvious and resounding yes.
It is our sincere hope that by offering this course, you will be able to treat patients 
in the most comfortable and caring way possible, which will help to improve your 
patients’ health and self-esteem, while at the same time improving the public’s 
view of our profession.
Imagine how powerful introducing sedation into your practice would be