Texas
Oral Sedation Dentistry Regulations
Effective June 1, 2011: Texas State Board of Dental Examiners Rule §110.5 requires dentists to complete a 24-hour accredited training course with 10 clinically-oriented experiences, and obtain a Level 2 permit before providing their patients with moderate sedation using oral sedatives.*
Find available training courses
* When the intent is minimal sedation with a single oral sedative (with or without nitrous), a 16-hour course is required. Dentists holding oral sedation permits before June 1, 2011 are grandfathered into minimal sedation, but are allowed to provide moderate oral sedation until January 1, 2013. In order for grandfathered dentists to continue providing moderate oral sedation after January 1, 2013, they must meet the training requirements for moderate oral sedation before that date.
Pediatric Sedation Dentistry Regulations
Sedation dentistry for children is a unique science and requires pediatric-specific training. The standard of care for providing pediatric sedation requires several hours of instructive classroom training with clinically-oriented experiences. Learn more about Pediatric Sedation Training Courses availabe nationwide.
IV Sedation Regulations
Most states require dentists to complete a 60-hour didactic course followed by 20 actual clinical patient cases of IV administration plus a permit in order to provide their patients with IV sedation. Find an IV Sedation Training course
Regulatory assistance: DOCS Education membership provides direct access to our full-time Regulatory Counsel for assistance in complying with the training and equipment requirements, obtaining your permit, and addressing advertising issues.
Why Do Oral Sedation?
An estimated 100 Million (nearly 30%) people nationwide are in need of dental care but too fearful to seek you out. To date, access to care for these patients has been limited. Now you can help.
Practicing oral sedation has many advantages for you, not the least of which is treating a more comfortable patient. Other advantages are: performing more dentistry in a single visit instead of having the patient come back again and again; bigger restorative cases from patients who were previously reluctant due to anxiety; and patients feeling little to no post-operative discomfort regardless of the procedure - resulting in more referrals.
And for your patients it means something else. A comfortable experience - often with no recollection of the visit or the time passed. I often hear of patients who call their dentist the next day not to complain, but to express their gratitude and delight in their first ever visit to the dentist without fear.
