Criteria for Selecting Special Health Care Needs Patients under General Anesthesia in Dental Treatment: A Systemic Review

Abstract

Aims: To investigate the available evidence on how to decide whether your special health care needs patient needs GA for dental treatments or not. Study Design: Systematic review. Place and Duration of Study: Pediatric dentistry department, Riyadh Elm University, between January 2021 and May 2021.  Methodology: A systematic search was conducted in four electronic databases PubMed, Google Scholar, ResearchGate and SDL. The search was restricted to articles published between 2005 and 2020. Publications reporting on the special health care needs patient’s dental treatment were included. The papers were analyzed regarding title and abstract contents to eliminate the ones that were out of context and not relevant to the review. Results: The search strategy resulted in 99 unique and potentially relevant articles. In total, 6 publications which include 5 retrospective articles and one cross-sectional study were selected. Conclusion: The main standards for selecting patients for hospitalized dental treatments include a full analysis of SNP including their medical history, behavior and emotional factors, oral health status, allergies, social and non-clinical factors, and caregivers’ factors. It is important for general dentists and families of these patients to be acquainted with the procedure, its need, and its contraindications.