Follow-up of children’s oral health-related quality of life after dental general anaesthesia treatment

Abstract

Objective: Our aim was to analyze longitudinally the impact of young children’s dental general anaesthesia (DGA) treatment on their OHRQoL and to determine their post-operative oral health status at the six-month follow-up together with parental ratings of their children’s oral health.

Material and methods: We conducted a prospective follow-up study of OHRQoL among Lithuanian child patients treated under general anaesthesia (n = 144). The study consisted of clinical dental examinations performed by two examiners at the time of DGA and at the six-month recall, along with OHRQoL surveys and data collected from the patients’ files. The dmft index and Silness–Löe plaque index served as clinical measures. The survey tool for assessing the children’s OHRQoL was the previously tested Lithuanian version of the ECOHIS. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test served for the statistical analysis (p < 0.05).

Results: The ECOHIS scores clearly decreased post-operatively, indicating a significant (p < 0.001) improvement in the children’s OHRQoL after the DGA treatment. The ECOHIS scores were lower immediately after the DGA treatment and remained low at the six-month recall. Parents rated their child’s oral health as higher after the DGA treatment (p < 0.001). The majority (75%) of the patients had poor or satisfactory oral hygiene at follow-up.

Conclusions: This longitudinal study showed a sustained improvement in the children’s OHRQoL six months after their DGA treatment. Post-operative parental ratings of their child’s oral health were higher after the DGA treatment, but the children exhibited insufficient oral hygiene and new caries lesions. An appropriate follow-up system for children receiving DGA treatment with special focus on preventive care is needed.