Assessing the use of the Index of Sedation Need in oral surgery.

OBJECTIVE: This article evaluates the use of the Index of Sedation Need in oral surgery. DESIGN: Service evaluation and audit. SETTING: Oral surgery department of a London dental teaching hospital. SUBJECTS (MATERIALS) AND METHODS: Patients attending for oral surgery procedures with sedation which had been arranged without reference to the IOSN tool completed the IOSN and a patient questionnaire. Operators completed a similar questionnaire. The IOSN was calculated and the questionnaire responses analysed using SPSS. RESULTS: 56% of the patients in this study (n = 105) were receiving sedation appropriately according to the IOSN tool. When the questionnaire responses were analysed depending on sedation need, no statistical difference was found using Fisher's exact test or Pearson Chi-Square (p <0.05). Fifty percent of patients who had no need for sedation according to the IOSN tool were considered by the operator to have been untreatable without it. CONCLUSION: This study raises questions over the validity and reliability of the IOSN tool as a method of defining sedation need.