Redmond Dentists

Mucocele This condition can be diagnosed by a seattle dentist.

A mucocele, also referred to as mucus extravasation phenomenon, is a swelling of connective tissue consisting of collected mucin from a ruptured salivary gland duct, which is usually caused by local trauma. The mucocele is a bluish translucent color, and is more commonly found in children and young adults.

Sedation Of Children For Dental Procedures


Conscious sedation can be provided using specific drugs and delivery techniques. Some of the drugs used in pediatric conscious sedation include meperidine, chloral hydrate, midazolam, and ketamine. Certain drugs should only be administered via specific routes, such as the oral, I.V., rectal, or intramuscular routes.

Most children are cooperative during bellevue dentist treatment, despite occasional moments of anxiety. Nevertheless, some children, especially the very young and fearful, may have difficulty cooperating for treatment at the cosmetic dentist office, and may benefit from behavior management techniques.

One pharmacologic behavior management technique is conscious sedation. During interactive conscious sedation, a child can respond to verbal requests from the kirkland dentist, and keep the eyes open while being sedated. It is unfortunate that less than half of all states reimburse bellevue dentists for general anesthesia if the child has no underlying medical conditions. Conscious sedation is often provided because it may be the only way to provide dental care for children whose insurance companies refuse to pay for dental treatment under general anesthesia.


The oral route is the oldest of all routes of drug administration, and still the most commonly used. It is a useful method for managing uncooperative or fearful children who need dental treatment.

The oral route offers some advantages over other routes, including decreased incidence of adverse reactions, lower cost, and ease of administration. The disadvantages of the oral route include prolonged onset time, prolonged duration of action, and erratic absorption from the GI tract. Most orally administered drugs demonstrate the highest blood levels at approximately 60 minutes after ingestion.


An adequate preoperative evaluation is an important part of the conscious sedation process.
Some of the major components of the evaluation include:

  • A thorough review of the child's medical history.
  • A review of systems. This means evaluating each of the child's functional systems, such as the: cardiopulmonary, airway, hematologic, central nervous, renal, hepatic, gastrointestinal, endocrine, and metabolic systems.
  • Knowledge of the child's current medications and allergies.
  • Knowledge of the child's previous sedation experiences.

The absorption of a drug from the GI tract is affected by its lipid solubility, the pH of the gastric juice, slow gastric emptying time, inactivation of the drug by the liver, and drug bioavailability.

Adequate monitoring during conscious sedation is essential to detect any developing complications. The clinician providing the sedation must be able to recognize and treat airway and other complications quickly and appropriately.

A thorough knowledge of the pharmacology of the drugs being administered is vital. Emergency drugs and equipment must be immediately available at all times. Possible complications associated with conscious sedation include oxygen desaturation, vomiting, airway obstruction, apnea, laryngospasm, stridor, bronchospasm, cardiac arrest, or death.

Mucocele is probably caused by minor injury to the little tube, called a duct, that carries saliva from the salivary gland onto the surface of the mouth. The injury can be caused due to inadvertent trauma such as biting.


A recent study published in Pediatrics investigated the causes of adverse events during pediatric sedation. According to the study, inadequate resuscitator skills were an important determinant of death and neurologic injury for nonhospital-based sedation procedures.

The effects of the sedation medications on a child's respiration were also found to be important factors in morbidity and mortality. Some of the article's conclusions were that age and size-appropriate resuscitation drugs and equipment should be immediately available, irregardless of where the sedation takes place. In addition, clinicians who sedate children should be skilled in the resuscitation of sedated children.

When the injury occurs, the thick, mucus-type saliva produced by the damaged gland is released into the surrounding tissues instead of going into the mouth with the rest of the saliva says a bellevue dentist. This often creates a clear or bluish bubble or blister. If the blister is poked at or further injured, bleeding can occur within the entrapped pool of saliva that would make it look red or purple.

A history of enlargement, breaking, and shrinkage is fairly common, and these lesions can be remarkably persistent. If untreated, these will often swell, break (like a water balloon), and heal over, only to swell again and repeat the cycle. This condition rarely goes away on its own says a cosmetic dentist.

An oral surgeon usually has to remove the spilled saliva and affected gland in order to completely stop the process, but this is a rather minor procedure. The excised tissue should then be examined under the microscope to exclude the very small chance of some form of growth or tumor.