Dental treatment provided to special needs children under general anesthesia in a tertiary care hospital – A cross sectional retrospective study

• Published in: The Saudi dental journal 2024-04, Vol.36 (4), p.579-583
• Main Authors: Alfarraj, Jawza, Louise Gray, Jenny, Alargan, Taghreed, Alkathiri, Maryam, Alshehri, Reema, Almarwan, Marwah
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Dental general anesthesia; Medically compromised children; Original; Retrospective study; Special needs
• ISSN: 1013-9052; 1658-3558
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2024.01.003

Dental general anesthesia (DGA) can be a preferred approach for treating children with special health needs (CSHCN). It has many benefits, most importantly, the support of the anesthesia team to control the medical status and treat the patient safely. The aim of this study was to evaluate the dental treatment provided to (CSHCN) under (DGA) in a tertiary-care hospital. Moreover, to compare the dental procedures between different medical conditions. This retrospective study involves a sample of 730 children aged between (1–16 years) with complex medical conditions treated under DGA between January 2009 until April 2022. The results show that 4.93 % of these patients had DGA twice. For those children who had DGA only once, the most frequent medical conditions were neuro-developmental disorders (31.8 %), pediatric oncology (17.4 %), and behavioral disorders (autism, ADHD, etc.) (15.1 %). The average age was 6.9 years; almost half were preschool children (4–6 years old, 48.41 %) followed by younger school children (7–9 years old, 28.82 %). The most common dental procedures done were extractions followed by restorative procedures. The use of fissure sealant was significantly higher in neuro-developmental and behavioral disabilities patients than other medical conditions.