Retrospective evaluation of sedation techniques for tooth extraction in pediatric patients

Abstract

Objective: Due to lack of past experiences and cooperation in anxious and fearful children, tooth extraction may be difficult to manage in dentistry. The aims of this retrospective study were to evaluate the various sedation techniques, complications and the characteristics of children whose tooth extraction were performed with deep sedation. Materials and Methods: After approval by the Local Ethics Committee, a retrospective analysis was performed using the records of 885 patients who were treated with deep sedation for tooth extraction between the ages of 1-15 years for the period between 2012 and 2014The authors described the characteristics of the children, the sedation techniques used; and the complications. Results: The mean weight of the patients was 20.09±7.3 kg and the mean age was 5.72±2.5 years. The mean duration of the operations was 16.14±5.4 minutes. Propofol, ketamine, propofol-ketamine combination, alfentanil, midazolam, sevoflurane inhalation, sevoflurane inhalation + propofol were used for the anesthesia. There were no statistically significant differences among the anesthetic agents for post-operative complications (p > 0.05). Conclusions: We concluded that propofol was a better option for deep sedation in pediatric dental extraction due to short duration time, rapid recovery and less nausea-vomiting. Ketamine-propofol combination may be used as an alternative to propofol alone.