- posted: Nov. 07, 2022
How does a dentist protect my child if he/she is sedating them?
Sedation does potentially compromise your child's reflexes as well as making their airway more vulnerable. Because of this, dentists will often times use an isolation device to protect the back of the throat(the airway) but also to better isolate your child's teeth so that the lip, tongue and cheek are not obstructing the dentist's ability to fix the teeth. The two most common isolation mechanisms are the rubber dam(a rubber square sheet that is stretched over a clamp that is placed on your childs back tooth) and the Isolite(rubber mouthpiece thats serves as a bite block, cheek/lip/tongue retactor and suction mechanism). Using an isolation mechanism shields water, air, tooth debris and filling materials from the child's throat/airway. Using cotton rolls and suction is simply not enough!!
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