Purpose 1 ) To review our experience with office-based sedation/anesthesia for children with special healthcare needs who underwent dental rehabilitation at our institution. 2 ) To compare the cost to comparable patients who underwent similar procedures in the operating room. Patients and Methods Retrospective review of patients’ medical records and the sedation service database. Group CL: 114 patients who underwent office-based dental rehabilitation (135 procedures). Group OR: 23 patients who underwent dental rehabilitation under general anesthesia in the operating room for cost comparison. Outcomes: 1 ) Efficacy (procedure completion rate and unplanned admissions); 2 ) Safety (complications and interventions); 3 ) Comparison of mean hospital charges billed between groups. Results Demographics were similar in both groups. The most common specific underlying diagnoses were autism (38%), cerebral palsy/developmental delay (18%) and ADHD (4%) in both groups. Efficacy: procedure completion rate was 98.5% (2 aborted). There was 1 (0.7%) unplanned postanesthetic care unit admission due to an adverse drug event. Safety: 2 (1.5%) patients required invasive airway control. Eighteen (13.3%) patients developed transient hypoxemia. Twenty-three (17%) patients had airway obstruction needing simple intervention, and 1 (0.7%) patient had hypotension. There were no serious complications. Cost: mean total hospital charges were considerably higher in group OR ($6,126), versus group CL ($1,277), even after adjustment for inflation and length of procedure ( P Conclusion Office-based dental rehabilitation using a pediatric sedation service model in children with special needs is efficient, and can achieve average savings of $4,849 in hospital charges per patient.
