The dental treatment of children under general anaesthesia at a hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia

The objectives of this retrospective study were to describe the characteristics of the children treated under general anaesthesia (GA), the indications, and types of dental treatment rendered at the Al Hada Armed Forces Hospital, Taif between September 1999 and March 2001. The dental records of all the children treated under GA during this period were reviewed and detailed information was collected. There were 70 children treated and their mean age was 68.5 months. The most common indication was inability to cooperate and accept dental treatment under local anaesthesia.Sixty-three percent of patients had treatment involving a combination of dental restorations and extractions. The mean restored and extracted primary teeth per child were 5.8 and 6.2, respectively. We concluded that children younger than 90 months (82%), and those unable to cooperate (41.4%), were the majority beneficiaries of the dental GA services.