Managing patient anxiety with sedation intervention

It is no secret that access to dental care and treatment has become increasingly difficult over the last century, sadly this has been exacerbated due to the unprecedented effects of COVID-19 on the profession. Putting this aside for one moment, we must also bring light to the ever-increasing barriers to access which began far before the pandemic. Not only do dentists feel overworked, undervalued, and underappreciated, fear of litigation is at an all-time high and thus it is for these reasons, amongst many others, that a loss of dentists from the NHS is a byproduct of such factors thus reducing the capacity available for NHS patients; increasing waiting time lengths for appointments, increasing treatment complexity and subsequently resulting in a higher demand for special care referral such as sedation.¹