ABSTRACT
AIM: To compare the levels of dental anxiety experienced by children having dental extractions using general anaesthesia (GA) with those having extractions using local anaesthesia and inhalation sedation (IHS) when offered a programmed choice between the two techniques prior to treatment. DESIGN: Structured interview with child at pre-treatment and at one week (approximately) follow up. SETTING: Community: primary health care centre. SUBJECTS: Children aged 9-15 years referred to a local NHS Trust dental clinic (n = 88). INTERVENTION: Child and parent provided with information about IHS and its benefits over GA for the assistance in tolerating extraction of teeth and provided with a choice of procedure. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: An eight question modified child dental anxiety scale. RESULTS: Full information was received from 76 children giving an 86% response rate. Post-operative dental anxiety was lower in children who had chosen (with their parent) IHS in comparison to those who had chosen general anaesthesia (P < 0.05). Dental anxiety remained unchanged in the group who chose to have their extractions under GA. CONCLUSION: Children and their parents who select IHS as opposed to GA to assist in extractions demonstrate less psychological distress.
Subject(s)
Anesthesia, Dental/psychology , Choice Behavior , Conscious Sedation/psychology , Dental Anxiety/prevention & control , Dental Care for Children , Tooth Extraction , Adolescent , Anesthesia, Inhalation , Chi-Square Distribution , Child , Community Health Services , Female , Humans , Informed Consent , Interviews as Topic , Male , Manifest Anxiety Scale , Statistics, NonparametricABSTRACT
A postal questionnaire of multiple-choice design was sent to 122 parents of children with special dental needs in the county of Cheshire, England, with the aim of determining parents' views and expectations of dental care. Replies were received from 85 (70%). Eighty respondents (94%) were in favour of preventive dental advice being given to their children and 83 (98%) felt that an explanation should be given of the risk to general health posed by dental disease or its treatment. A high proportion of parents felt that simple dietary and oral hygiene advice was necessary, that the benefits of fluoride supplementation should be explained and that free fluoride supplements should be issued. The 'family dentist' was most favoured as the source of advice, closely followed by a community dental officer. Likewise the dental surgery was the most popular location for receiving advice, and doctors' surgeries were the least favoured. Parental support for regular school dental screening examinations of all children was extremely high and parents thought that special-needs children should be examined more frequently.
