Dexmedetomidine Supported Office Based Genioplasty: A Pilot Study.

[INTRODUCTION] Despite the availability of wide variety of pharmacological agents for dental procedural sedation, there has always been a continuous search for newer sedative agents. Dexmedetomidine is a newer sedative agent for provision of short-term sedation (<24 h) in adult patients in the intensive care unit setting. It is a selective α2 adrenergic receptor agonist. The reports on off-label use of this drug in a variety of settings for invasive and non invasive procedural sedation have provided encouraging results.

[MATERIAL AND METHODS] The present paper reports a pilot study observing clinical efficacy of the newer drug dexmedetomidine in patients undergoing office based sliding genioplasty for correction of facial asymmetry. Subjects were sedated with dexmedetomidine with a loading dose of 0.5 mcg/kg over 10 min followed by a continuous infusion dose of 0.1 mcg/kg/h, the recovery process was observed for 60 min after the dexmedetomidine infusion was stopped. The patients were observed pre operatively, intra operatively (every 10 min) and postoperatively for the following parameters-oxygen saturation (SpO2), mean arterial pressure (MAP), heart rate (HR), and Ramsay sedation score (RSS), respiratory rate, pain scale.