Parental Perception toward Dental Sedation in Pediatric Patients

Marwah S. Almarwan, Vineet Dhar, Marvin Leventer, Huda Alkuhl, Rawan Abujabal

Abstract: Aim: To evaluate parental perception towards sedation through a pre-operative survey. The survey comprised of three parts: knowledge, beliefs and attitude. In addition, to assess any significant association between demographic data and pre-operative questionnaire. Methods: One hundred and one parents of children underwent dental treatment under sedation at University of Maryland responded to the pre-operative questionnaire in clinic prior to dental sedation procedure. Results: Most of the parents were the only one accompanying person with the child undergoing dental sedation (57.43 %). Fisher’s exact test was significant (0.006) in parents who thought that dental sedation was of a low risk and had education of college or higher. Conclusion: Less than half of parents brought an additional responsible person with them to the child’s dental sedation appointment, suggestive of inconsistent compliance with the pre-operative instructions at screening appointments. Parents with higher education (postgraduate) viewed dental sedation for children as a safe approach

Keywords: Parental knowledge, Parental beliefs, Parental attitude, Dental sedation, Pediatric patients