Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
9. International Health Sciences and Management Conference, İstanbul, Türkiye, 23 - 25 Mayıs 2024
Problem of the Study: The high prevalence of oral health problems and the need of specialized dental services of disabled individuals are essential problems for the health policies.
Purpose of the Study: This study aimed to determine the profiles of disabled individuals who received dental treatments under general anesthesia.
Method: In this retrospective cross-sectional descriptive study, 262 disabled patients were included. Their socio-demographic profiles and dental treatments as well as general anaesthesia related factors were extracted from the hospital information management system in the Dental School of Marmara University.
Results: The study group covered both adult (n=162, 61.8%) and pediatric dental patients (n=100, 38.2%). While 84%(n=220) of the patients resided in Istanbul, 16%(n=42) of them applied to the dental school from different cities. It was observed that 10.3%(n=27) of the patients had a Green Card and 28.2%(n=74) made out-of-pocket payments during the service process.
In addition to their comorbidities, Mental retardation (n=146, 55.7%), Epilepsy (n=73, 27.9%), Autism (n=56, 21.4%) and Cerebral palsy (n=41, 15.6%) were the most common conditions in the study group. As related with their clinical manifestations, the highest consultation demand was in the field of Neurology. The majority of patients (n=203, 77.5%) had received at least single general anesthesia session before appliying dental school.
The waiting time for first general anesthesia session was found as 278.2 days in the study group. The ratio of patients whose first intraoral examinations were performed under general anesthesia was 16.8%(n=44) in the whole group. Restorative treatments were the most performed under general anesthesia whereas prosthodontic treatments were the most under sedation.
Conclusions: The specialized institutions that provide general anesthesia services and facilitate consultation processes and access to dental care services are critical to improve oral health of disabiled patients in the health policy perspective.
Keywords: Oral Health, General Anesthesia, Disability, Access to Dental Care