Death Rate of Dental Anaesthesia

Death was the most important side effect of anaesthesia in dentistry. In this article we reviewed more than 20 studies with adequate data focusing on death associated with dental procedures since 1955 and found 218 deaths out of 71,435,282 patients (3 deaths per 1,000,000 persons) with the mortality rate of 1:327,684. In addition, mortality rate per million has dropped to half (6.2 per 1,000,000 vs. 3 per 1,000,000) since 1955 till the last report in 2012 without any sex predilection. In children, most cases died in the age of two to five years. Hypoxia was the most common cause of death, and cardiovascular, respiratory, and endocrine disorders, hepatic cirrhosis, septicaemia, and bacterial endocarditis were the most frequent underlying systemic disease in deceased patients. Although rare death following general anaesthesia in dentistry, is a critical side effect mostly seen in patients with compromised health condition. Therefore, appropriate case selection in regard with patients' general health status as well as standard technical and equipment conditions are mandatory to diminish the risk of death during dental anaesthesia.