Don’t Neglect Your Sedation and Anesthesia Reviews

Talking with the Toothcop

Are you doing proper sedation and anesthesia reviews? Are you making sure you don’t have drugs sitting in your office that expired pre-COVID? Are you checking with a patient’s primary care provider before administering anesthesia? Being busy and overwhelmed isn’t an excuse for not doing your due diligence. In this episode of Talking with the Toothcop, Andrea and I touch on the importance of doing a proper review.

Outline of This Episode

• [4:09] Sedation and anesthesia reviews
• [8:49] Upcoming anesthesia course

Check for expired drugs and equipment

I’ve done a lot of sedation and anesthesia reviews in the last few months, and I can tell that some offices have been quite distracted. Those that have been quite busy aren’t staying on top of the things they should, like an annual inspection of the sedation process and equipment reviews. As a result, I’m finding a lot of expired stuff. They’re lucky I found it—not the state board. You need to be routinely checking to make sure you’re not storing expired drugs.

Sedation and anesthesia reviews

You also need to be diligent in your patient screening and selection for anesthesia. Don't overlook even the slightest detail. Get the proper medical consultations done versus just getting medical clearance. “Medical clearance” is not an absolution of viability for you. You can’t just exchange paperwork with their primary care physician. Take the time to document the conversation in your clinical notes (with great detail).

Take your pride out of the equation. Even if you’ve done something 1,000 times, there may be one time something goes wrong. If you can’t prove you’ve done your due diligence and properly screened your patient, you won’t have a leg to stand on. Err on the side of caution. If a conversation happened—but it’s not in your records—it didn’t happen.

Upcoming anesthesia course

We have an anesthesia CE course coming up on June 5th from 8 am to 12 pm central, but open to anyone across the US. The course is “Principles and Practices of Dental Office Anesthesia,” taught by Dr. Justin Bonner and Dr. Garrett Starling. If you’ve done the same anesthesia course, change it up. Hearing the same thing from a different perspective might impact you in a more meaningful way. Learn more by clicking the link in the resources!

Call to action: When you get to your office, check the expiration dates on your emergency drugs and all of your equipment. Make sure they aren’t expired.

Resources & People Mentioned

• Learn more about protectIt dental at https://dentalcompliance.com/drugkit or call them at 888-878-8916 and tell them that the Toothcop sent you!
• Principles and Practices of Dental Office Anesthesia: https://dentalcompliance.com/products/live-anesthesia-principles-and-practices-of-dental-office-anesthesia

Connect With Duane

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