410 - Practice of Dental Extraction Under General Anesthesia at a Community Hospital

Purpose:

The purpose was to study the patients that received a general anesthetic (GA) and underwent dental extractions at our community hospital in order to better understand the need and extent of this practice.

Methods:

A retrospective chart review for children up to age 18 having dental extractions in the operating room between 2019 and 2020 was conducted. Information collected included patient age, whether GA was used, patient gender, BMI, race, cognitive impairment status, which teeth were extracted, and total number of teeth extracted. Average time from expected natural exfoliation was calculated by using the patient’s age at time of extraction and the average expected age of exfoliation for each tooth extracted.   

Results:

228 patients met inclusion criteria. The mean age of patients in the study is 4.75 years. The average number of teeth extracted is 3.4 teeth per patient. The 775 total teeth extracted were characterized and charts are available showing this. The average time prior to natural exfoliation in this study is 4.5 years. The racial demographic of these patients is Caucasian (33%), African American (28%), Asian (3%), Hispanic (2%), Other (34%). The average BMI is 15.8

Conclusions:

Among 228 pediatric patients having dental extractions with GA at a community hospital over a two-year time period, the upper incisor teeth were most affected followed by molar teeth and lower incisors. African American cases appeared to be over-represented compared to the general population although many cases were charted as unknown race.