Intravenous sedation is effective for dental patients who are anxious. Recently, target-controlled infusion (TCI) has begun to be used widely to administer and titrate propofol and remifentanil during sedation. To investigate the effect and safety of the pharmacologic agents used in anesthetic department, we performed a retrospective study.

Retrospective study of a series of dental procedure under intravenous sedation performed in department of anesthesiology in Dental Hospital of Dankook University was carried out with propofol or propofol/remifentanil between January and August 2011 and January and April 2012. All patients received oxygen by nasal cannula. The average propofol and remifentanil target was 0.5 µg/ml and 1.0 ng/ml, respectively using a TCI pump. The average peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO₂), heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, nasal end-tidal CO₂ were recorded at 5-10 minute intervals. The age, gender, weight, procedure and sedation time, type of procedure were also recorded.

We included 22 cases of 19 adults (group A) and 6 cases of children (group B). In group A, 4 patients received propofol (group A-P), and 15 patients received propofol with remifentanil (group A-PR). In group B, 6 patients received propofol only. The mean age of group A was 41.1 years old and that of group B was 9.5 years old. No clinically significant complications were noted. There were no case of de-saturation <90%. The median respiratory rate was 13.1 (range 6 to 36) in group A and 19 (range 13 to 25) in group B. The median end tidal CO₂ was 36.7 mmHg(range 8 mmHg to 56 mmHg) in group A and 41.7 mmHg (range 30 mmHg to 53 mmHg) in group B.

Based on our results, dental sedation using propofol/remifentanil in adult and propofol in children with TCI pump seems to appear as a safe and effective procedure while performing dental procedure.