How to choose a safe dental clinic for treating a child under sedation - expert advice
Kyiv • UNN
How to choose a safe dental clinic for treating a child under sedation and what parents should pay attention to. After a series of tragedies in private clinics, the issue of safety once again becomes key.
Dental treatment under sedation is increasingly becoming the choice of parents – it is fast, painless, and stress-free for the child. However, comfort must be accompanied by safety. How to choose a clinic and not make a mistake, read in the material of UNN.
A few years ago, dental treatment under sedation was rather an exception. Today, it is a common practice actively offered by private dental clinics. For parents, this looks like an ideal solution: the child is not afraid, does not cry, and the doctor can perform a large amount of work at once.
But behind this "convenience" lies a complex medical process that requires not only the doctor's experience but also adherence to high safety standards. This was emphasized by anesthesiologist Mark Rudenko in an exclusive comment for UNN.
To understand how safe a dental clinic is for treatment under sedation or anesthesia, a patient should pay attention to several key points. First of all, it is the presence of a license. The clinic must have an official permit to provide anesthetic support, as this is a basic requirement that confirms that the institution has the right to perform such procedures
The second critical factor is the team and equipment. After all, when it comes to pediatric treatment, both the dentist and the anesthesiologist must have the appropriate specialization and experience working with children, the expert emphasizes. Rudenko also advises asking how often the clinic performs treatment under sedation or anesthesia. Such information will help parents understand how confidently the team works. If doctors do this regularly, they know better how to act and will not be confused if something goes wrong.
Special attention should be paid to the clinic's equipment. The room where anesthesia is administered must have an anesthesia-breathing machine, a full-fledged medical defibrillator (not an automatic one for emergency use, like in the subway), access to oxygen with the ability to deliver 100% oxygen, and a modern monitor to control vital signs, including saturation, blood pressure, and electrocardiogram. It is important that this is a full-fledged monitoring, and not just a basic pulse oximeter. All these requirements are regulated by the standard for providing anesthetic care in dentistry from 2025, so the clinic must comply with them.
It is these nuances that often remain "behind the scenes" for the parents of a small patient, but determine the level of safety. At the same time, there are also "red flags" that parents can notice even before the procedure. For example – formal preparation for anesthesia.
Before the intervention, the patient should be prescribed the necessary examinations. For children, a complete blood count and urinalysis, an electrocardiogram or heart ultrasound, and a pediatrician's examination to rule out acute inflammatory processes are mandatory. If the scope of examinations seems too minimal or formal, this can be an alarming signal. For example, if a patient is prescribed only one blood test before anesthesia, without taking into account other mandatory examinations, this indicates insufficient preparation
In fact, it is about a simple but fundamental formula: safe anesthesia is always about a license, qualified specialists, modern equipment, and a full examination before intervention. These are the criteria that parents should focus on when choosing a dental clinic for treating children. When at least one of these elements is missing, the risks cease to be theoretical.
Recall
This is exactly what happened in March 2025 in Kyiv, when a routine visit to the dentist turned into a tragedy for an entire family. In the private clinic "Mali", a 7-year-old boy underwent dental treatment under general anesthesia – a procedure positioned as a safe "medicinal sleep" for children. During the intervention, the child's condition sharply deteriorated. Resuscitation measures were started in the clinic, after which the boy was hospitalized. Doctors diagnosed a deep coma. A few days later, he died in the intensive care unit of "Okhmatdyt", without regaining consciousness.
The "Mali" clinic launched an internal investigation and suspended the anesthesiologist from work. Following the tragedy, law enforcement officers opened a criminal case under the article on improper performance of professional duties by a medical worker. In December 2025, the anesthesiologist was notified of suspicion: according to the investigation, during anesthesia, the child was given a drug that was contraindicated given his health condition, which could have caused acute heart failure, which could have been the cause of death. After checking the dentistry, the Ministry of Health revoked the medical institution's license.
This tragedy was a shock not only because of the fact of the child's death, it once again showed a systemic problem: there is no effective and efficient state control in the medical field of Ukraine.
It is the Ministry of Health that forms the rules for the medical market, is responsible for licensing and the quality control system for medical services. However, in practice, inspections often occur after tragedies, rather than working to prevent them.
Despite the formal existence of standards, their observance is not properly controlled. As a result, clinics whose level does not always meet the stated requirements can operate on the market, and this is only revealed when the irreparable happens. It can be concluded that the Ministry of Health does not perform one of its key functions – patient protection.