The effects of general anesthesia legislation on operating room visits by preschool children undergoing dental treatment.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of state-level general anesthesia (GA) legislation on operating room visits for the treatment of dental caries on preschool-aged children.


METHODS
The North Carolina Ambulatory Surgery Discharge Database was used to observe GA visits for fiscal years (FY) 1997 to 2001. A pretest/post-test design with concurrent comparison groups was used for 2 analyses: (1) all children treated for dental caries were compared to those treated for otitis media; and (2) those whose treatment for dental caries was reimbursed by Medicaid were compared to those whose treatment for dental caries was not reimbursed by Medicaid.


RESULTS
In the prelegislation period (FY 1997 and 1998), there were 3,857 GA visits for dental core and 21,038 for otitis media. Postlegislation (FY 2000 and 2001) dental visits increased to 5,511(43%), and otitis media visits increased to 22,279 (6%)-a statistically significant difference (P<.05). Before the legislation, there were 1,370 non-Medicaid dental visits and 2,487 Medicaid dental visits. Non-Medicaid and Medicaid dental visits postlegislation increased to 2,195 (60%) and 3,316 (33%), respectively. This difference was significant (P<.05).


CONCLUSIONS
General anesthesia legislation resulted in an increase in access to care for children needing dental care in North Carolina.
White
Halley R
HR
Department of Pediatric Dentistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Lee
Jessica Y
JY
Rozier
R Gary
RG
D000367:Age Factors; D000556:Ambulatory Surgical Procedures / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000766:Anesthesia, Dental / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D019140:Dental Care for Children / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008484:Medicaid / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009657:North Carolina; D009873:Operating Rooms; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000628:therapy; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012737:Sex Factors; D014481:United States