The need for repeated dental care under general anaesthesia in children

Though the use of advanced behaviour management may facilitate dental treatment in children, some patients still require comprehensive care under general anaesthesia (GA). This is especially true for young children and/or medically compromised children. Thus, this study aimed to provide information about children undergoing GA with regard to age, sex and medical conditions (ICD-10), repeated treatments, dental procedures and recall.

A total of 464 medically compromised children treated under GA in a dental university clinic between 2004 and 2012 were included. Patients` records were analysed retrospectively using SPSS (Version 21.0) and R for statistical analysis.

More than 75% of the patients were younger than six years when receiving initial GA. The proportion of children subjected to repeated treatments was low, at 11% for a second and <2% for a third round of GA. The greatest proportion of dental care consisted of restorative therapy and tooth extractions. The recall behaviour observed between the first and second GA revealed no significant influence on the time elapsed in between events (p>0.05).

Oral care in children with medical conditions is mostly caries-related, and repeated treatment may be necessary, though it was generally uncommon in this university-based study population.