Development of an Evaluation form for the Assessment of the Best Therapeutic Process in Pediatric Dentistry: A Pilot Study

Abstract

In pediatric dentistry, there is a lack of studies focusing on predicting the most suitable therapeutic process after the first dental visit. The aim of the study was to develop an objective evaluation form, based on three indexes (psychological index, family support index, dental therapies complexity index), able to identify, from the first dental visit, the best therapeutic process for each child (outpatient procedure, inhalation conscious procedure, pharmacological sedation, general anesthesia). A total of 30 children underwent a first dental visit. One dentist carried out the visit, chose the best therapeutic process, without the aid of the evaluation form, and scheduled dental therapies, while the other one observed the dental visit and filled in the evaluation form. After dental treatments, the value obtained from the evaluation form was compared with the therapeutic procedure actually carried out to observe if there was a concordance, assessed through Cohen`s Kappa. Finally, Fisher test was performed for the statistical analysis. The overall concordance between the results obtained from the evaluation form and the therapeutic procedure actually carried out turned out to be 73.30%. Within the indexes, a statistically significant association was detected between the family support index and the psychological index (p = 0.02), but not between dental therapies complexity index and both family support index (p = 0.30) and psychological index (p = 0.63), respectively. The evaluation form was able to help clinicians to better direct the child towards the most appropriate therapeutic dental process.