Is pain during pediatric dental sedation associated with children’s pre-operative characteristics? An exploratory study

Abstract Introduction Little is known about the factors associated with the pain of children in dental treatment under conscious sedation. Objective To investigate the association between preoperative characteristics and pain during pediatric dental treatment under sedation. Material and method This exploratory study was conducted with 27 children in restorative treatment under sedation. Information on age, sex and experience of the children with previous dental treatment was obtained through interviews with parents. Oral health status, determined from the presence of dental caries, was verified using the dmf-t index. Pain was assessed by analyzing videos of the dental treatments by two previously calibrated examiners, using the items “legs”, “activity” and “crying” of the observational scale “face, legs, activity, consolability and crying” (FLACC). Data were analyzed using bivariate tests. Result Most of the children (n=14, 51.8%) had no pain during dental treatment under sedation. Among the other children, lower or moderate pain scores (median 1.1; minimum 0 to 3.8) were observed. The FLACC scores did not vary according to sex (P=0.38), previous experience with dental treatment (P=0.32) and history with local anesthesia (P=0.96). The FLACC scores did not correlate significantly with age (Spearman rho= -0.08, P=0.67) and dmf-t (Spearman rho= -0.04, P=0.84). Conclusion In this group of children, pain during dental treatment under sedation was of low frequency and intensity and did not associate with age, sex, oral condition and previous dental experience.