Failure Rate of Dental Procedures Performed under General Anesthesia on Children Presenting to Mofid Pediatric Hospital during 2010-2011

Extensive dental treatments for young healthy and medically compromised children are performed under general anesthesia in a daily basis. Considering the side effects of sedatives and anesthetic drugs and also the high risk of dental caries in this group of patients, it is especially important to decide the safest and the most cost beneficial treatments. This study aimed at clinical evaluation of the failure rate of various dental procedures performed under general anesthesia on children presenting to Mofid Pediatric Hospital in Tehran during 2010-2011. This descriptive cross sectional study was conducted on a total of 104 patients who received dental treatments under general anesthesia in Mofid Pediatric Hospital and a minimum of 6 months had been passed from their treatment. Dental examination was performed on a dental chair using dental mirror and a probe in the out-patient dental clinic of Mofid Pediatric Hospital. Recorded information included all types of treatment failures occurred in patients that were registered in especially prepared forms. Overall difference in failure rates was calculated using Chi square test while multiple logistic regression test was used to investigate the effect of different factors on the failure rate of treatment modalities. Our study results indicated that stainless steel crown (SSC) was the most successful treatment with the lowest failure rate (1.5%). SSC had a significantly lower failure rate compared to amalgam (7.9%) and posterior composite restorations (9.9%) (P=0.003 and P=0.000, respectively). Composite buildup of the anterior teeth had the highest failure rate (22.4%) among all types of anterior restorations (11.6%) (P=0.009). The failure rates of both pulpectomy and pulpotomy procedures were found to be reasonably low rating at 0.8% and 1.1%, respectively. The highest failure rate belonged to anterior teeth build-ups. Teeth restored with SSC had the highest success rate indicating it as the treatment of choice for badly carious posterior teeth of children who require dental treatments under general anesthesia.