Retrospective analysis of the impact of local anesthetic used during dental procedures on patients with epilepsy's vital signs

Abstract

Aim:  In our study, it is aimed to investigate the effects on vital signs by measuring fever, oxygen saturation, pulse, and blood pressure from the patient before, during, and after local anesthesia application. Methodology: Patients who applied to Necmettin Erbakan University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Pedodontics between January 2021 and July 2022, who had epilepsy and needed dental treatment; After clinical/radiographic examination, Necmettin Erbakan University Meram Medical Faculty Pediatric Neurology Department was sent for consultation. Within the scope of the research, temperature, oxygen saturation, pulse, and blood pressure measurements were made before, during, and after anesthesia in 39 procedures performed on 19 patients in total. SPSS 23 program was used for the statistical analysis of data. Before the analysis of the data, Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests were applied to test the normality of the distribution. Paired sample t-test was used to examine the fever, pulse, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation levels of the participants before, during, and after anesthesia. The statistical significance level in the study was accepted as p<0.05. Results: There was a statistically significant difference between the participants' pulse measurements during anesthesia and their post-anesthetic pulse measurements (p= 0.049). There was a statistically significant difference between pre-anesthesia oxygen saturation measurements and pre-anesthesia oxygen saturation measurements (p= 0.042). There was a statistically significant difference between the pre-anesthesia oxygen saturation measurements and the post-anesthetic oxygen saturation measurements of the participants (p= 0.012). Conclusion: In patients with a history of epilepsy, attention should be paid to the anesthetics used during the procedure and the consequences of dental anxiety, and dental treatments should be planned within the necessary precautions.