Estimated compared with actual plans of paediatric dental treatment performed under deep sedation: A retrospective cohort study.

Background: Planning the extent of paediatric dental treatment under deep sedation is highly important, as the duration of the sedation should be limited to approximately 1 h, and the amount of local anesthesia is limited by the children's body weight.

Aim: To compare treatment plans estimated at initial examinations with actual dental treatments under intravenous deep sedation. We examined factors that could affect the differences.

Design: For this retrospective cohort study, data were collected from the medical records of all the children younger than 18 years who underwent dental treatment under intravenous deep sedation during 2019-2021 at the Department of Pediatric Dentistry.

Results: In total, 108 children were included. During the actual versus the estimated treatment under deep sedation, more teeth were treated (p < .001), and the treatment was more complex (p < .001). A longer waiting period for dental treatment was found to be correlated with a greater number of treated teeth than was estimated (p = .003) and with greater complexity of the actual than the estimated treatment (p = .003).

Conclusion: Actual compared with estimated dental treatment under deep sedation involved more teeth and was of greater complexity. This suggests that referrals should include children with limited estimated treatment plans.