Dental management of the child and adolescent with major depression.

Major depression is a psychiatric disorder in which mood, thought content, and behavioral patterns are impaired, often for an extended period of time. This condition appears to have an increasing prevalence among young children and adolescents. It may be associated with a disinterest in performing appropriate preventive oral hygiene techniques, a cariogenic diet, rampant dental decay, and advanced periodontal disease. Appropriate dental management necessitates a vigorous preventive dental education program and special precautions when administering local anesthetics and prescribing sedative and analgesic medications.