Browsing by Author "du Plessis, A."

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    Continuous education in sedation: Laryngospasm and management of the airway
    (South African Dental Association, 2016) Roelofse, J.A.; Lapere, C.; du Plessis, A.
    The goals of procedural sedation (PSA) stretch far beyond providing just sedation and analgesia. Practices need to strive to treat adults and children with dignity, decreasing their anxiety levels, providing adequate pain control, preventing adverse events, while maintaining proper cardiorespiratory function. Safety is crucial. Protection of the airway is vital to ensure patient safety. In dental sedation, the airway is usually shared by the sedation practitioner and the dentist. Understanding the importance of the airway and a basic knowledge of the anatomy are necessary. Protecting the patient against hypoxia is crucial. This article will review critical aspects of laryngospasm (a form of airway obstruction), which may threaten patient safety, and will discuss how to rescue the patient during dental sedation.
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    Patient satisfaction during and following procedural sedation for ambulatory surgery
    (South African Dental Association, 2015) Lapere, C.; Roelofse, J.; Omar, Y.; du Plessis, A.; von Backstrom, A.Botha, W.; Cook, C.; Bosch, G.
    Background: Patient satisfaction is multidimensional. The clinician's perspective of a good outcome and the patient's experience of a satisfactory service are often two different end-points. The primary aim of our study was to assess the perioperative experience of patients undergoing procedural sedation. A secondary aim was to create a postoperative questionnaire which could be used as a measurement tool. The questions could also be used as an audit to assist with adherence to quality assurance and clinical governance. Method: A questionnaire was compiled to attempt to assess the perioperative aspects of procedural sedation. Five hundred consecutive patients undergoing procedural sedation for dental-related outpatient procedures were asked to complete a questionnaire. Patients who didn't complete it were excluded. Ninety-eight per cent of the patients returned the questionnaire and 489 questionnaires were evaluated. Results: A total of 489 patients were included. Ninetythree per cent of the patients expressed a good (7+/10) overall experience of procedural sedation, and 92.6% indicated that they would recommend it to others. Conclusion: Our study population showed a high level of satisfaction with their sedation experience. It is suggested that the devised questionnaire could be used successfully in future as an assessment tool or audit of patient satisfaction following procedural sedation for ambulatory surgery.
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    A pilot study investigating the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites
    (South African Dental Association, 2017) Mulder, Riaan; Mohamed, Nadia; du Plessis, A.; le Roux, S.G.
    OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. METHODS: This study investigated two well-known bulk-fill flowable composites, Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR) (Dentsply/Caulk, Milford, Germany) and Filtek bulk fill flowable (FBF) (3M ESPE, Minnesota, USA). Three ampules of each material were randomly selected. The ampules were subjected to 3D Micro-CT (General Electric Phoenix V|Tome|X L240) reconstruction in order to assess the presence of any voids within the ampules. RESULTS: Voids were present in all the ampules. The total void percentage for each group of three ampules was found to be SDR : 1.147 % and FBF : 0.0424 %. There was a significant difference between the volume of voids for SDR and FBF, p-value=0.003924. CONCLUSION: Voids were found in the randomly selected samples of bulk-fill flowable composites. This is undesirable and manufacturers should be urged to ensure that no voids are present, or at least are minimized in the ampules of material.