The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of access targets for elective dental general anaesthesia (GA) by assessing incremental changes in dental disease burden over wait times at SickKids. A retrospective review of dental records were completed for 378 children who were prioritized by their dental and medical status. A scale was developed to measure cumulative dental disease burden over time. Statistically significant correlations were identified between cumulative disease burden and wait times for priority IV (p = 0.004), the entire sample (p < 0.003), DOSDCADCA (p = 0.005), comorbid (p = 0.036), healthy (p = 0.0002), female (p = 0.014) and male (p = 0.008) groups. The mean cumulative disease burden was not different between matched healthy and cormorbid groups (p = 0.38). A trend of increasing dental disease burden for children with longer wait times for dental GA was found but not clinically significant.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical relevance of access targets for elective dental general anaesthesia (GA) by assessing incremental changes in dental disease burden over wait times at SickKids. A retrospective review of dental records were completed for 378 children who were prioritized by their dental and medical status. A scale was developed to measure cumulative dental disease burden over time. Statistically significant correlations were identified between cumulative disease burden and wait times for priority IV (p = 0.004), the entire sample (p < 0.003), DOSDCADCA (p = 0.005), comorbid (p = 0.036), healthy (p = 0.0002), female (p = 0.014) and male (p = 0.008) groups. The mean cumulative disease burden was not different between matched healthy and cormorbid groups (p = 0.38). A trend of increasing dental disease burden for children with longer wait times for dental GA was found but not clinically significant.