Changes in children’s oral-health-related quality of life following dental treatment under general anesthesia in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract Background Early Childhood Caries (ECC) is the most common childhood disease in preschool children which often require dental treatment under Dental General Anaesthesia (DGA). Aim: To assess the effect of DGA on United Arab Emirates (UAE) children and their families’ Oral Health Related Quality of Life (OHRQoL). Design: A cross sectional study, using a DGA pre-and post-survey to evaluate changes in OHRQoL. A total of 173 parents completed Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) before and after their children (mean age 4.6 years) underwent DGA by a pediatric dentist in Al-Ain, UAE from 1st March 2017 to 28th February 2018. The ECOHIS and its effect size (ES) served to evaluate children's OHRQoL, the Wilcoxon signed-rank and the Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analyses. Results: The mean dmft of the children prior to the treatment was 13.8+3.07. Children’s pain and eating problems and parents feeling upset and guilty were the most frequently reported impacts at baseline. The ECOHIS scores decreased significantly (p < 0.001) after DGA, revealing a large ES for the child (2.19) and family (2.79) sections of the ECOHIS. Conclusions: DGA treatment resulted in significant improvement in all child and family physical, psychological and social aspects of OHRQoL.