Dental Sedation Monitoring

The record can include heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and expired carbon dioxide. These values are recorded at least every 10 minutes.

A time-based record documents heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, oxygen saturation and expired carbon dioxide. The stated minimum interval is every 10 minutes.

Sedation and general anaesthesia sit on a continuum, and a person may become more deeply sedated than intended. The care team must be able to recognise and manage the physiologic consequences.

Capnography monitors ventilation by measuring expired carbon dioxide. It is the preferred method when two-way verbal communication is not appropriate or possible.

Monitoring follows ventilation, oxygenation, circulation and sedation depth throughout care. Recording these measurements makes a change in breathing or physiologic status visible in the timed record.

Capnography research has assessed whether earlier intervention reduces hypoxaemia, arterial oxygen desaturation and complications during procedural sedation. Monitoring matters because sedation depth can change unexpectedly.