A New Classification System for Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia

Abstract

The provision of comprehensive care for patients with special needs using dental general anesthesia (DGA) has changed over time, and now includes more complex procedures and the participation of many services. As a result, it is necessary to integrate, organize and describe all of the procedures that are carried out in different DGA settings. The aim of this study was to propose a systematic classification for dental treatment procedures be delivered under DGA, and to compare this classification system with an existing system. This new classification system has three distinct components: type, frequency and length of time needed to complete dental procedures for both primary and permanent teeth. A wide range of oral surgery procedures and endodontic treatment was also included. A retrospective cohort study utilizing 84 subjects was used to develop and compare the two classification systems. When comparing the different categories of procedures by both classifications, there were significant statistical differences between them (p < 0.05). Oral health care for patients with special needs has evolved, with more complex and extensive interventions that require teamwork by personnel from different dental or medical specialties. The classification system in this study includes detailed information regarding the procedures involved in the DGA. This helps to provide a clear understanding and specific information that enables the comparison of clinical experiences across populations where a DGA has been used for patients with special needs.

Dental Treatment under General Anesthesia in Healthy and Medically Compromised/Developmentally Disabled Children: A Comparative Study

“…22 The information about the time of GA in operative setting room is sparse. 21 In the present study we found that healthy children required more general anesthesia time for their oral rehabilitation. The mean was 185 minutes for healthy and 94 minutes for MCDD children, which was a statistically significant difference (P= 0.0001).…”

“…21 Since then, we have used this classification to describe the entire process of dental care under DGA rather than individual procedures and to organize and summarize data. There are some important points to note in this study.…”

Dental treatment under general anesthesia for special‐needs patients: analysis of the literature

“…Seventy‐one studies that included discussion of treatment under GA were found for evaluation. Among these, only 10 studies were included for the final analysis, based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria shown in Table . The majority of the studies reported on the types of dental treatment.…”

“…In their study, Roeters and Burgersdijk provided a classification for treatment under GA, based on treatment provided to 221 handicapped patients. As the oral health care for SNP has evolved with more complex and extensive interventions, a new classification system for dental treatment under GA has been developed, based on the duration of treatment, treatment type, and frequency of procedures, as shown in Figure . The treatment modalities included under GA for SNP were preventive, restorative, and surgical procedures.…”

Hospital Dental Treatment for Special Health Care Needs Patients in Minas Gerais state, Brazil: A Cluster Analysis

“…In addition, administrative matters of the Brazilian Health System related to the hiring of specialists, the type of funding and costs may explain the low participation of specialized dentists. However, it may be that the general dentist is the best suited professional to perform this type of service, as restorative procedures and extractions are the procedures performed most frequently [16,[27][28][29].…”