Dental treatment for children under general anaesthesia in day care facilities at a London dental hospital.

Day-stay facilities are gaining in popularity in general surgery, especially in surgery for children. In dentistry, day-stay care has been shown to be of great value for the treatment of specific groups of child patients, including handicapped and those too young to tolerate treatment with local anaesthetic alone. The present study considered the characteristics of 103 patients attending for treatment in the day-care facilities of the Eastman Dental Hospital, the morbidity of the technique and the acceptability of the service to those using it. Of the 103 patients, 46 were seen in the unit because they required minor oral surgery and 22 because of particular problems with management. Ninety-four patients had one or more symptoms following treatment. In at least 53 cases this related to the treatment and not to the anaesthetic. Despite a cost to the families in terms of money and time, the service proved acceptable to almost all of those who used it.