298 - Future Caries Occurrence in Children Previously Treated Under General Anesthesia

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine if age at the time of initial oral rehabilitation under general anesthesia is correlated to future caries experience on untreated primary molars.

Methods: A retrospective chart review was completed on patients who received complete oral rehabilitation under general anesthesia at a health center between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2018, of which 170 patients met inclusion criteria.    Data was de-identified and collected into ReDCap software (Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN).  Statistical analysis was completed by statisticians at NYU-Langone Hospitals.

Results: Groups of patients based on demographics are approximately equal. A total of 104 (61%) patients have caries on initially untreated primary molars following initial general anesthesia experience. There is no statistical significance between age or gender in relation to future caries experience in this study.   

Conclusions: Future studies should expand on other areas of the mouth left untreated during initial general anesthesia experience to determine future treatment needs.  Although age and gender are not correlated with future caries experience on initially untreated molars in the general anesthesia setting, a high proportion (61%) of patients exhibit future decay on untreated molars in this population.  Because the setting of this study is a federally-qualified health center which focuses on a low-income population, this finding is supported by past studies indicating that low socio-economic status and past caries history are strongly correlated with caries experience.  These findings may support the practice of prophylactically treating high risk primary molars in a general anesthesia setting.