How much to you look forward to treating anxious patients?  What about those with a gag reflex? As a hygienist or Therapist how easy is it to do your best scaling and carrying out pocket debridement on the lingual side of lower molars - in a gagger- Difficult if not impossible !
What about ortho extractions for a 10-12 year old. Will the experience put off the child for years to come?
Would you like your practice to be remarkable – to stand out from the crowd?
Would you like more happy patients thinking your practice is wonderful and recommending more people to you?
Would you like to reduce your own stress as well as that of that of these difficult patients?
Would you like to add a new and innovative service to your practice?

Then I believe from long experience you should consider introducing RA as a valuable practice-building service.
I must state that I have no financial interest in any company associated with any relevant products but I do run Hands-on training courses in R.A.

I have used this technique for 32 years and have treated over 8000 cases in a high street practice setting. Almost all have been adults and children from about 4 years old. A much wider range of treatment options, including advanced or specialist treatment can be offered and successfully completed for people whose anxiety stops them accepting the treatment they need, including molar endo, impressions for gaggers, implant placement or second stage surgery and so on.

I estimate that on average I have used the technique once a day, every day in both NHS and in the last 20 years in solely private practice. The technique also reduces stress for the operator dealing with anxious or gagging patients.
Here are just a few relevant quotes on the subject of conscious sedation
“The effective management of pain and anxiety is of paramount importance for patients requiring dental care and conscious sedation is a fundamental component of this.” And that “Competently provided conscious sedation if safe, valuable and effective”i
“For many people, a visit to the dentist is a stressful experience, but for a small number, it is an extremely frightening one. How dentists treat these patients can make a major difference to their view of dentistry, and whether there are any dento-legal ramifications following their treatment”ii
There are no reliable published data which confirm the use of RA in General Dental Practice in the U.K. I have estimated, through an unpublished survey, that between 10-15% of UK dentists offer Inhalation Sedation. In some areas that number is more likely to be 0-5%. In 2001, it had been estimated that 56% of U.S. Practices offered R.A.iii
So If I could show you a way to successfully set up an RA service would you be interested?
The author has published “RA” overview articles aimed at the GDPiv and the dental team v

This article was kindly written for us by Richard Charon BDS at Newbury Smilemakers

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