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.
Keywords: Children; dental general anaesthesia; follow-up; oral health; quality of life.