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Each week, smile-on updates our online journal of articles on the latest developments in the dental sphere - clinical, techniques, patient and practice management and IT developments. Browse our extensive archive using the keyword or category search boxes, below.



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Keep It Relative
With the demise of GA in a GDP setting, relative analgesia or RA (conscious inhalational sedation) offers a real alternative for the management of anxiety. Here, Richard Charon, BDS, offers a personal view backed up by almost 25 years’ experience

The current use of RA in general practice seems to be very limited. According to one supplier of RA equipment, about 80-90 per cent of their sales are to health authorities. This seems such a wasted opportunity for GDPs. The technical details of administration and an overview of equipment are well documented in the article by Graham Roberts et al in Dental Update, April 2000.

Offering RA to your patients can, amongst other benefits:

Revolutionise your patient's dental experience

Provide a safe and viable alternative to GA for ortho extractions.

Add value to the service you provide

Help build your reputation

Build goodwill for your practice

Reduce the stress of your working day

RA is effective, easy, pleasant and safe. I have successfully used it to help build my practice and I believe I have, in my own small way, made some contribution to helping change public perceptions of dentistry for the better. Patients love it and I love its effect on them and on my ability to complete decent dentistry in what would otherwise be difficult or impossible circumstances. What is more, with the usual provisos, I never need worry about patient safety or discomfort during administration.

Patients leave happy and parents of children are amazed. Patient selection is paramount, as with all modes of sedation. However, any doubts as to the patients’ suitability is easily assessed by providing a ‘trial run’.

R.A. One Technique - Many Uses

RA has proven to be an invaluable tool for orthodontic extractions. Simultaneous extraction of four premolars in a ten to thirteen year-old using LA with RA has, in my hands, been 100 per cent successful. The patient is ready to walk out of the surgery by the time any packs are removed and the post-op instructions have been given, plus their experience has been a positive one.

The Non-Attender

Many cases of dental neglect in the non-attender are founded on the problem of
a gag reflex. Gagging is an anxiety-driven response. I would estimate that for 95 per cent of these cases, RA provides a level of sedation that is sufficiently anxiolytic to subdue the gag reflex and allows almost all routine dental operative procedures to be carried out. The patient becomes accustomed to pain-free and anxiety-free dentistry and a virtuous circle is set up.

More information
For more information on RA, you may be interested in attending Richard’s course, which will next be held at his Newbury practice in December. Click here for details.