My version of a PSA

So at the first of August we had a scary experience with Dalley that could have been avoided. We had gone to the dentist and found he needed to get some cavities fixed. We scheduled an appointment to get them fixed and the dentist told us that he would be sedated with Versed. I checked it against the meds that he is not allowed to have but I did not do much research on sedation's beyond that. I have several friends who have had their children sedated so I didn't think much of it.

The morning of the sedation I woke up with a bad feeling and couldn't quite shake it. I kept telling myself it was just routine dental work and it wasn't a big deal.We took Dalley in and they gave him the stuff to drink in the waiting room. It immediately started working and I did not like what it did to him. They came and took him back and we waited for about an hour. Then the dentist came out to talk to us. He was a little shook up and told us there had been issues. While they were doing the dental work Dalley quit breathing. They couldn't get him to maintain his oxygen and they had to give him an emergency shot to bring him  back around. The dentist said they were able to get the dental work done but he would not ever feel comfortable sedating Dalley again. I was a little freaked out. I know that if they had let me know he was back there struggling I could not have changed it but I felt terrible that while I was in the waiting room thumbing through magazines, my son was back there struggling.

The rest of the day was TERRIBLE. Dalley could not keep anything down. Not even water. They told us not to let him sleep for two hours so we didn't want to head home because we knew he would just fall asleep so we took him to IFA and Cal Ranch to kill some time and keep him awake. We finally had to give up on going anywhere because he was puking uncontrollably. He couldn't even hold his own head up. He did not regain full control of his body until 7:00 that night. Nine hours after he had been given the medicine that was only supposed to last for a few hours. He was really sick until the next day.

A little too late I decided to do a little research on dental office sedations. I found that most doctors don't recommend it. Dentists take a two day course on how to do them which does not seem to be enough time to be administering drugs like that. Then yesterday we took Dalley to his pulmonologist. I told him about our experience. He told me that most definitely with Dalley's lung issues, he should never be sedated outside a hospital. He went on to tell me that he doesn't really agree with any child being sedated in a dental office. The dentists do not have the emergency training and tools necessary if there is an issue. He said that in his opinion all sedations should be administered by trained anesthesiologists.

Now I am not trying to tell people what to do. My only recommendation is that if anyone is considering a dental office sedation that they do more research than I did. From now on all of Dalley's dental work will have to be performed at Primary Children's which will be a pain, but I feel terrible that I took a chance the first time and I am not willing to take that chance again.