Anaesthetic choice for palatal canine exposure

Abstract Aim: To determine if predicted difficulty of exposure of palatally displaced, unerupted canines assessed by radiographic score had influenced the choice between a local or a general anaesthetic procedure in adolescents. Materials and methods: This was a retrospective analysis of patients undergoing surgical exposure of palatal canines between December 2005 and June 2008 in a dental hospital setting. A total of 56 subjects, for whom complete records were available, aged 16 years or under and assessed and treated by one surgeon, were included. The predicted degree of difficulty of exposure was graded from preoperative radiographs based on three criteria; the horizontal and vertical position of the crown, and the canine angulation (possible score range 3–11: higher score = more difficulty). The radiographic scores and patient age for the local anaesthetic and general anaesthetic groups were compared using Student's unpaired t‐tests. Other variables including gender, other surgical treatment required and unilateral or bilateral exposure were evaluated by chi‐squared analysis. Results: Thirty‐one (55%) patients were treated with local anaesthetic and 25 (45%) with general anaesthetic, the mean age was 13.7 years. The mean radiographic scores did not differ between groups being 7.53 and 7.36 for the local anaesthetic and general anaesthetic groups, respectively. Chi‐squared analysis showed concurrent other surgical treatment to be the only statistically significant factor in anaesthetic choice. Conclusions: Difficulty of canine exposure is not a significant factor in anaesthetic choice for adolescents, other concurrent surgical treatment appears a more significant factor in anaesthetic choice in this group.