Do paediatric patient-related factors affect the need for a dental general anaesthetic?

Aims The aims were to determine the profile of patients referred for treatment with dental general anaesthetic (DGA) and identify patient-related factors that contributed to a child requiring a DGA.Design setting In total, 42 patients were recruited from new patient assessment clinics at the Edinburgh Dental Institute, Scotland. Prospective questionnaires were given to the patients' caregivers with questions regarding their child's dental anxiety level, ethnicity, level of English spoken and languages spoken at home. Height and weight (BMI) measurements were taken and other information (age, sex, medical history status and postcode for level of social deprivation) were collected from their medical records.Results Compared to the local population, children referred for treatment with DGA had a significantly decreased level of English (p = 0.0001) with an increase in non-English languages at home (p = 0.0004). Patients from minority ethnic groups (p = 0.008) and children from socially deprived areas (p = 0.0001) were significantly overrepresented. Self-reported dental anxiety was high and more common in primary than secondary school-aged children (p = 0.039).Conclusions This study highlighted several patient-related variables that may increase the likelihood of DGA treatment. Further work is required to confirm these associations and develop interventions to reduce the number of children requiring DGAs.

'Childrenese': A Pilot Survey on the Choice of Language in a Paediatric Dental Setting.

To ensure good communication with paediatric patients, members of the dental team typically avoid dental jargon by using appropriate substitution of words. This language of word replacement is sometimes termed 'Childrenese'. This survey was carried out to collect a formulary of perceived effective and ineffective word replacements from paediatric dental team members. It assesses the impact of factors such as age and gender on the respondents' word choice. The formulary aims to aid general dental practitioners in communicating with paediatric dental patients.

The Effect of Irradiation Distance on Light Transmittance and Vickers Hardness Ratio of Two Bulk-fill Resin-based Composites.

The aims of this study were to assess the light energy transmission and Vickers hardness (VH) ratio of two bulk-fill resin-based composites (RBCs) (Tetric EvoCeram and Filtek) cured at different distances between the light curing unit's (LCU) tip and the surface of the restoration (T-S) using either a Bluephase G2, Bluephase® 'turbo tip' or Bluephase Style LCU. Samples were cured from the top at T-S distances of 2mm, 6mm and 10mm for 20 seconds. A MARC-Resin-Calibrator™ recorded the transmitted irradiance reaching the bottom of the sample, in real time. The VH was measured at the top and bottom after 24h of dark storage. Both the total light energy (TLE) transmitted through the samples and their VH ratios were reduced with increasing T-S distance. At 10mm T-S distance, the VH ratio values of samples cured with Bluephase G2 LCU were significantly greater than the samples cured with the other LCUs while the samples cured with Bluephase® 'turbo tip' showed the lowest values. It can be concluded that TLE transmitted through bulk-fill RBCs and their VH ratio reduces with increasing T-S distance but the rate of decline is LCU dependent. Bluephase G2 was associated with the smallest light attenuation.