Survival of dental restorations performed under general anesthesia in special needs patients. Report from a 15-year experience.

BACKGROUND: Longevity of dental restorations (DR) in the general population is well discussed in the literature. Evaluation of survival of DR in special needs patients (SNP) is less frequently reported especially in long-term. DR in SNP patients is more challenging considering the poorer oral baseline conditions and cooperation during treatment. We provide an assessment of DR survival performed under (GA) in a cohort of uncooperative SNP over a 15-years period. METHODS: Uncooperative SNP requiring dental treatments under GA in our institution during 2018 were collected. Patients who were treated with multiple GA sessions were selected to allow analysis of DR survival (DR performed between 2002-2017). Presence and clinical functionality of DR was assessed during subsequent follow-up visits or GA interventions. DR were considered successful since they were associated with an event (replacement, tooth loss, endodontic treatment). Median survival time (MST) of DR and its 95% confidence interval (CI) were retrieved with Kaplan Meier estimator. Random effect model assessed inter-patient variability. RESULTS: Survival of 232 dental restorations in 59 patients was assessed. MST was 9 years (IC 8-10) Most relevant steps in survival analysis were seen after 2 and 11 years from last procedure. No considerable variability was observed in our population. CONCLUSIONS: MST of dental restorations performed under GA our cohort resemble previous findings regarding routine conservative treatment in the general population. Lack of variability in our analysis suggest that MST seems not influenced by individual characteristics of patients. Our findings support tooth restoration as a reliable treatment modality in SNP treated under GA in accordance with available literature.