Pediatric Dental Sedation Research: Where Do We Stand Today?

Abstract

Despite the voluminous literature addressing the safety and efficacy of various sedative agents in the pediatric dental setting, the quality literature to form evidence based pediatric dental sedation practice is not available. Our search through PUBMED showed that during 1985-2012, a total of 184 original research papers on pediatric dental sedation were reported, and midazolam clearly dominated with 88 trials on this agent. Despite these large numbers of papers, Cochrane Review was able to pool a weak evidence in favor of midazolam. Data pooling from five heterogeneous high risk of bias trials showed that oral midazolam is associated with more cooperative behavior when compared to a placebo. Further, a very weak evidence regarding efficacy of nitrous oxide was collected from two trials, which could not be pooled. These findings draw attention to the need to address the shortcomings in the current state of pediatric dental sedation research. The present article has been focused on the current status of pediatric dental sedation research, and the limitations in the current research methodology. This paper also suggests recommendations for future research in the field of pediatric dental sedation.