AbstractsMedical & Health Science

Purpose: The aims of this study were to: (1) evaluate the prevalence of compliance of Postgraduate Pediatric Dentistry Programs (PPDPs) in the United States with the current American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD) sedation guidelines and Commission On Dental Accreditation (CODA) sedation curriculum requirements and identify barriers to and facilitators for implementation of such guidelines; (2) identify changes to-date in sedation practices of PPDP since the previously published AAPD sedation guidelines (2011); and (3) determine the independent association of compliance of PPDP with program setting. Methods: A 40-item questionnaire was emailed to all postgraduate pediatric dentistry program directors (PPDPDs) of CODA accredited programs in the U.S. (n=74). Bivariate analysis, chi-square, Monte Carlo simulation and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used to analyze the data. Results: 70% of surveyed participants responded (n=52). On average, PPDPs were found to be compliant with both AAPD and CODA sedation standards. The bivariate analysis showed that both current setting of PPDPs and PPDPDs training setting did not affect the compliance of the program with the AAPD and the CODA sedation guidelines. Directors that stated receiving an “excellent sedation training” were more likely to be compliant with the CODA sedation standards (p=0.01). In this study, a major perceived barrier for increasing the number of non-IV conscious sedation cases per residents was a lack of patient pool (37%). When comparing changes in the sedation practice of PPDPs between 2009 and 2011, more sedation emergency drills were found to be performed in 2015 (p=0.05). Conclusion: Most PPDPs were compliant with both the AAPD and CODA sedation standards. Most PPDPDs were in favor of the 2013 increase number of sedation required by CODA. Both PPDPD training setting and PPDP setting did not affect the compliance of the programs with the AAPD sedation guidelines and the CODA sedation standards. PPDPs with PPDPDs who reported an excellent sedation training were more likely to be more compliant with the CODA sedation guidelines. Finally, PPDP setting did not affect the number of patients receiving non-IV conscious sedation or the number of sedation ER experienced per year.