Abstract

PURPOSE Little attention has been given to the issue of obtaining informed consent for conscious sedation and general anesthesia from Spanish-speaking parents living in the United States. The treatment of pediatric dental patients can only be as effective as the extent to which Spanish-speaking parents consent to the dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to identify valuable information that dentists can utilize to obtain an informed consent for conscious sedation and general anesthesia from Spanish-speaking parents.

METHOD Each Spanish-speaking parent in the sample was given one of the following explanations regarding an anesthetic technique: 1) verbal presentation for nitrous oxide and oxygen, 2) written presentation for nitrous oxide and oxygen, 3) verbal presentation for oral sedation, 4) written presentation for oral sedation, 5) verbal presentation for general anesthesia, or 6) written presentation for general anesthesia. Data were collected by means of Spanish language surveys given to a random sample of Spanish-speaking parents at Loma Linda University School of Dentistry's Pediatric Dental Clinic.

RESULTS Of the 282 subjects returning questionnaires, 73 % felt better informed if the information was given orally. A statistically significant relationship was shown between the presentation methods and the parent’s responses (p = 0.027).

CONCLUSIONS The verbal presentation method was the most effective style of communicating an anesthetic technique to a Spanish-speaking parent. There was a significant difference between the six presentation methods (p < 0.001). There was, however, no significant difference between the presentation methods and the parents’ education (p = 0.706), when evaluating the parent’s willingness to give consent.

LLU Discipline

Pediatric Dentistry

Department

Pediatric Dentistry

School

Graduate School

First Advisor

John Peterson

Second Advisor

Jay Kim

Third Advisor

Isabella Piedra

Fourth Advisor

Joni Stephens

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Level

M.S.

Year Degree Awarded

2000

Date (Title Page)

6-2000

Language

English

Library of Congress/MESH Subject Headings

Anesthesia, Dental; Conscious Sedation; Third Party Consent; Pediatric Dentistry.

Type

Thesis

Page Count

viii; 52

Digital Format

PDF

Digital Publisher

Loma Linda University Libraries

Usage Rights

This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has granted Loma Linda University a limited, non-exclusive right to make this publication available to the public. The author retains all other copyrights.

Collection

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Collection Website

http://scholarsrepository.llu.edu/etd/

Repository

Loma Linda University. Del E. Webb Memorial Library. University Archives

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