A Comparison between the Effect of General Anesthesia and Routine Outpatient Dental Treatment on Fear, Anxiety and Oral Health Related Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients

The purpose of this study is to comparison the effect of dental treatments under general anesthesia and outpatient on the level of fear and anxiety and quality of life related to oral health of children.

Methods & Materials: 

In this cross sectional study two groups of 3 to 6 years old children are selected, one group need dental treatment with general anesthesia and the other group need outpatient treatment in the office. Questionnaires for assessing the child's fear and anxiety level (DS-CFSS) and evaluating the quality of life related to the child's mouth (F-ECOHIS) are provided to the parents before the treatment and 1 month after the treatment. Data were analyzed in SPSS software (version17) using Mann whitney, T-Test , Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon Signed Ranks.The level of significancy was 0.05.

Anxiety before the treatment and also after the end of the treatment was significantly higher in the general anesthesia group than in the outpatient treatment group (p<0.001 and p<0.001). Children's anxiety score has decreased significantly in the outpatient treatment method (p=0.007) and in the treatment method under general anesthesia decreased significantly (p<0.001). The quality of life of children in the outpatient treatment group was significantly higher than the general anesthesia group before the study (p=0.008). There is no significant difference in the quality of life after the treatment between children in the outpatient treatment group and general anesthesia. (p=0.614).

Both methods, outpatient treatment and treatment under general anesthesia are highly effective and have a positive effect on the quality of life related to children's oral health and are able to reduce their anxiety. The treatment under general anesthesia was more successful in reducing anxiety of children comparison to base line ,but in related to the quality of life there was no significant difference.