I appreciate the links and I will take the time to review them in depth. This is an interest of mine. Thanks for your post.

I realize there are some things that I am unclear on that I will need to clarify.

First -- I was under the impression that, for some procedures, some oral surgeons do induce general anesthesia (with the goal of spontaneous respiration) while performing whatever procedure is taking place; the focus in this thread has been on conscious sedation but it appears that both state law and professional guidelines allow for general. What am I missing here?

I was also under the impression that IV opioids and sometimes propofol are used for conscious sedation (propofol titrated to a level where the patient is still arousable); those in combination with benzos seems like a situation that, to me, should not take place at a standalone dental office without the supervision of an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist. However, another post below indicated that only an IV benzo and local are used routinely for wisdom teeth, and that does seem reasonable to me, but I still am wondering what oral surgeons use for other, possibly more involved procedures. Someone else (maybe it was you) indicated that there is always a dedicated anesthesia professional available when general is induced so I do need to clarify what I'm missing here. Is it that common practice does not reach the highest level that the law and professional guidelines allow?

By the way, I enjoy questioning common practices, even if it's uncomfortable, possibly offensive, or even detrimental to my own professional future. I think that there are many common practices that are rather "unregulated and harmful" within medicine, despite the similarly extensive accreditation/credentialing/licensing bodies that exist -- practices that may not be particularly egregious but enough to warrant further discussion, and I would be surprised if the same were not true for dentistry. I posted what I did under assumptions that I need to investigate further and, again, I appreciate your sources and time.