Paediatric minor oral surgical procedures under inhalation sedation and general anaesthetic: a comparison of variety and duration of treatment.

AIM: To develop baseline data in relation to paediatric minor oral surgical procedures undertaken with both general anaesthesia and nitrous oxide inhalation sedation within a Hospital Dental Service.

STUDY DESIGN: Data were collected prospectively over a three-year period from May 2003 to June 2006 for patients attending the Departments of Paediatric Dentistry, Dundee Dental Hospital and Ninewells Hospital, NHS Tayside, Great Britain, for all surgical procedures undertaken with either inhalation sedation or general anaesthetic. Both operator status and the procedure being undertaken were noted. In addition, the operating time was recorded.

RESULTS: Data for 166 patients (F: 102; M: 64) with a median age of 12.50 (inter-quartile range 10.00, 14.20) years showed that 195 surgical procedures were undertaken. Of these 160 and 35 were with general anaesthetic and sedation respectively. The surgical removal of impacted, carious and supernumerary unit(s) accounted for 53.8% of all procedures, whilst the exposure of impacted teeth and soft tissue surgery represented 34.9% and 11.3% of procedures respectively. The median surgical time for techniques undertaken with sedation was 30.00 (inter-quartile range 25.00, 43.50) minutes whilst that for general anaesthetic was similar at 30.00 (inter-quartile range 15.25, 40.00) minutes (not statistically significant, (Mann Whitney U, W = 3081.5, P = 0.331).

CONCLUSIONS: The majority of paediatric minor oral surgical procedures entail surgical exposure or removal of impacted teeth. The median treatment time for most procedures undertaken with either general anaesthetic or nitrous oxide sedation was 30 minutes.