Changes in children’s oral-health-related quality of life following dental treatment under general anesthesia in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Background Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is the most common childhood disease in preschool children which often require dental treatment under Dental General Anaesthesia (DGA). Aim: To assess the effect of DGA on United Arab Emirates (UAE) children and their families’ Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL). Design: A cross sectional study, using a DGA pre-and post-survey to evaluate changes in OHRQoL. A total of 173 parents completed Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) before and after their children (mean age 4.6 years) underwent DGA by a pediatric dentist in Al-Ain, UAE from 1st March 2017 to 28th February 2018. The ECOHIS and its effect size (ES) served to evaluate children's OHRQoL, the Wilcoxon signed-rank and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: The mean dmft of the children prior to the treatment was 13.8+3.07. Children’s pain and eating problems and parents feeling upset and guilty were the most frequently reported impacts at baseline. The ECOHIS scores decreased significantly (p < 0.001) after DGA, revealing a large ES for the child (2.19) and family (2.79) sections of the ECOHIS. Conclusions: DGA treatment resulted in significant improvement in all child and family physical, psychological and social aspects of OHRQoL.

Characteristics of Pediatric Dental Treatment Provided under General Anesthesia in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: A Retrospective Analysis

“…Moreover, in this study, S-ECC was found to be the most common cause of DGA (85%). These results seem to be consistent with other studies, which found that most of their DGAs were also caused by S-ECC [ 14 – 16 ]. These findings are rather disappointing and suggested that ECC, a preventable disease, remains a burden upon children, families, and the wider society that needs to be resolved.…”

Professional Attitudes and Practice of Pediatric Dentists About the Use of Local Anesthesia for the Treatment of Children Under General Anesthesia

“…Research on addressing fear and anxiety in treating anxious children has explored the use of tranquilizers, narcotics, behavior control techniques, or a combination thereof (3)(4)(5). However, behavior control techniques come with limitations, notably their potential ineffectiveness at higher levels of anxiety (6). Combining pharmaceutical management with behavior control methods in pediatric dentistry enhances the success rate and quality of treatments.…”