[Management under ambulatory general anesthesia of handicapped children in dentistry-oral medicine].

The management of handicapped patients and children is often considered by the dentist as a challenge. The success depends on establishing the right initial contact with the patient and obtaining his acceptance of the treatment without disturbing the psychosomatic equilibrium existing between body, affectivity and mind. Should dental treatment under general anesthesia, therefore, be considered as a failure or rather as a strategy in dentistry, which permits the eradication of all infectious centers and ensures the maintenance of a sufficient masticatory capability for the handicapped patient?