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The aim of this study has twofold. First, to investigate characteristics of paediatric patients seeking emergency dental care and the according treatment in a specialised dental service. The second aim, to propose a data-based guidance for management of dental emergency in children including pain management without traumatizing the child and with a clear differentiation of dental emergency patients.
Records of the demographic and clinical characteristics of 332 children (mean age 8.2 ±4.2 years) who attended the Department of Preventive and Paediatric Dentistry at the University of Greifswald in 2018 without an appointment seeking emergency dental care were collected. Statistical analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests. Based on the data a proposal for management of emergency/pain patients was performed.
Pain patients were high caries risk children (mean: 4.59 ±3.65 dmft, 1.65 ±2.73 DMFT). The main clinical diagnoses of pain patients in all different age groups were dental caries and caries-related complications such as reversible and irreversible pulpitis or periapical periodontitis (63.6%), while dental trauma contributed (8.4%). In general, the most frequent treatment was extraction (41.0%), most of these extractions needed to be rendered under either nitrous oxide sedation or general anaesthesia (57.3%).
This study has shown a clear association between the dental emergency management plan (delay of the dental treatment) and other factors such as, the required treatment (invasive or not invasive) P < 0.05, the need of sedation P < 0.05 and child’s previous dental experience (first visit to the dental clinic) P < 0.001. Most of the extraction procedures were not rendered immediately in the emergency/pain visit, rather they were delayed to be performed in the next treatment session (70%), with the majority of these procedures planned to be rendered under sedation. On the other hand, most of the restorations (65.5%) were performed in the emergency/pain visit, with need of sedation for only (8.3%) of these procedures. In addition, the majority of treatments of children who were visiting the dental clinic for the first time were postponed (71.6%; n=63). The correlation analysis shows a higher tendency to postpone the treatment when the required treatment is invasive, need to be rendered under sedation or when
it was the child’s first visit to the dental clinic. These findings indicate the strong impact of child’s cooperation on the emergency management plan.
Based on these data the guidance for management of peadiatric dental emergency patients was developed including pain management without causing negative affect of the child’s future cooperation