Dental treatment under general anaesthesia: the short-term change in young children's oral-health-related quality of life

Abstract

Aim: This was to assess the short-term change in children's oral-health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) and family impact after dental treatment under general anaesthesia (GA) in the Netherlands.

Study design: A pretest-posttest design was used.

Methods: Children (< 8 years) referred to a clinic for specialized paediatric dentistry and who needed treatment under GA were selected to participate and divided across two groups. Fifty out of 80 parents/children couples participated, one group of parents filled out the questionnaires on behalf of their child before and after treatment (N = 31), and the other group only after treatment (N = 19). The questionnaires used were the Children's Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) and Parental Perceptions Questionnaire and Family Impact Scale (PPQ and FIS, forming the OHRQoL score). The oral health was assessed using the decayed-missing-filled surfaces or teeth index (dmfs/dmft) for the primary dentition from the status praesens after treatment.

Results: There was a significant difference between the pre- and posttest-scores in group A for both the short version and the long version (short: t = 5.088, df = 20, p < 0.001 and long: t = 6.279, df = 20, p < 0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in CFSS-DS scores before and after treatment (group A) (t = 1.815, df = 13, p = 0.093).

Conclusions: The children's OHRQoL improved after treatment under GA according to their parents. As expected, dental fear did not change and should be dealt with after treatment to avoid a child's dental fear to persist in the future. A shorter version of the PPQ and FIS seems useful to assess OHRQoL in very young children.