The patient's knuckles whiten and his eyes roll as he clutches the arms of the chair. Suddenly he chomps on your fingers. As you start back in pain, he leaps to his feet, knocks down several thousand dollars worth of equipment, and dashes for the exit... without stopping to pay his bill.
Nightmares like these -- and the availability of new oral anti-anxiety drugs -- help explain why more dentists are sedating fearful patients. As many as two-thirds of dentists may be using the new drugs, and many patients say they wouldn't get dental care any other way. But some dentists aren't trained in the use of the medications they prescribe, and state dental boards have varied widely in the regulations they impose.
