The importance of preoperative instructions and their role in patient safety in the provision of conscious sedation for dental care : How do we improve patient compliance?

摘要

The aim of providing preoperative instructions to patients prior to medical and dental procedures is to aid in reducing the risk of complications perioperatively and postoperatively, with the ultimate goal of ensuring patient safety. Traditionally, such information has been provided to patients in written format; however, the effectiveness of this method has often been brought into question, and other methods are being developed and used. Conscious sedation is defined as a technique in which the use of a drug (or drugs) produces a state of depression of the central nervous system, enabling treatment to be carried out but during which verbal contact with the patient is maintained throughout the period of sedation. It is used routinely in medicine and dentistry for the management of anxious patients, in situations where treatment is too invasive for local anaesthesia alone, and during gastrointestinal endoscopy, to improve patient comfort and overall success of treatment.