A retrospective review of a service to provide comprehensive dental care under general anesthesia

Day-stay general anesthesia is indicated for a number of dental reasons, not least for those patients who are unable to accept routine dental care. Since 1979, the Dental Hospital of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, has provided a weekly day-stay service for the dental care of such patients. Reviews of this service were undertaken in 1983 and again in 1993. The latter study investigated the provision of care for 265 patients and compared this with that for the 96 patients reviewed in the earlier study. This paper presents the results of the review and underlines the need for a very aggressive approach to preventive dental care for patients treated by this modality.