Survey on Dental Sedation teaching and Practice in Italy

Purpose: To report information about the current dental sedation teaching and practice in Italy. Methods: National survey to collect data about current sedation teaching and practice in Italy. The survey covered all 33 Dental Schools in Italy and 150 dental office located in Veneto region. Results: All the 33 surveyed Dental Schools and 110 (73 %) of the 150 surveyed dentists completed the questionnaire. Sedation is taught in most of the Dental Schools, and some Universities also have postgraduate education programs on this topic. In the setting of academic Italian Dentistry, sedation is provided mainly by anaesthesiologists (94%) and only rarely by dentists (6%). In the private dental practice, the anaesthesiologist performs the sedation in about 20% of the cases, the remainder being performed by dentists and physicians. Clinical significance: Sedation teachers in Italy are anaesthesiologists, but conscious sedation is not their preferred topic. This teaching is mainly theoretical, while practical training is lacking in the majority of the Dental Schools. Sedation for paediatric and/or disabled patients is rarely taught, because these patients are mainly treated under general anaesthesia. In the Dental Schools, anaesthesiologists perform most of the sedations, whereas in private dental office dentists perform this duty more frequently. The Italian dental anaesthesia teachers have, indeed to walk a long path, to establish a clear definition of objectives, competences and limits of the modern dentist, in order to get common professional profile and legal framework.