| Summary: | Many children present to hospitals and dental clinics needing effective sedation or anaesthesia for painful or distressing diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. There are many sedation techniques available but there is insufficient guidance on which techniques are effective and what resources are required to deliver them safely. Sedation is not always effective enough and will occasionally require the procedure to be delayed until the child can be anaesthetised perhaps in another healthcare setting or on another day. Consequently sedation failure is both distressing for the child and has major NHS cost implications. Excessive doses of sedation can cause unintended loss of consciousness and dangerous hypoxia. In comparison, planned anaesthesia is effective, but may have resource implications. The need for sedation or anaesthesia will depend upon the type of procedure. Some types of procedures are very common and healthcare providers and practitioners need to understand whether sedation or anaesthesia is the most cost effective method of managing them
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