Background: There are gaps in understanding the experiences of children, parents, and providers during dental conscious sedation. This study aimed to capture and analyze these experiences to identify opportunities for improvement and enhance the quality and safety of pediatric dental conscious sedation.
Methods: A human-centered design approach was used to examine the conscious sedation experience in 2 US advanced education pediatric dental clinics. Researchers conducted field observations, interviews with providers and parents, and providers focus groups to explore experiential factors. Data were transcribed and analyzed using content thematic analysis. Insights from the data were used to explore and generate new solutions to improve dental conscious sedation quality and safety.
Results: A total of 25 observations, 18 interviews (9 providers, 9 parents), and 4 provider focus groups were conducted across both sites. The process identified 4 key improvement opportunities: helping providers navigate the ambiguity of patient behavior, facilitating rapport building between providers and patients/parents, aligning expectations and supporting sedation sensemaking, and making the sedation experience more patient-centered. A multicomponent intervention was developed to address these needs, including a parent-facing brochure, a patient educational video, and an enhanced set of sedation records for providers to document patient and sedation information.
Conclusions: This study used human-centered design to identify key challenges in pediatric dental conscious sedation and develop a multicomponent intervention in collaboration with patients, parents, and providers. The research demonstrates the potential of this approach to enhance sedation quality and safety, with future studies needed to assess its impact.
Keywords: design thinking; patient experience; pediatric dentistry; sedation.
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