This study aimed to evaluate the cooperative levels of dental patients requiring general anesthesia during dental treatments. Anesthetic induction methods for patients were also recorded and analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Total 566 patients who visited Seoul National University Dental Hospital Clinic for Persons with Disabilities were reviewed on pre-anesthetic review and anesthesia records. The cooperative levels of patients were graded by 4 levels and induction methods used for the patients during general anesthesia application were analyzed.

More than half of patients (55.8%) were willing to receive the anesthetic induction (cooperative level 1), 18.6% were minimally cooperative (level 2), 20.8% needed physical restraint prior to induction (level 3), and 4.8% was poorly cooperative and induction procedure was performed under an unconscious condition after ketamine intramuscular injection (level 4). There was no gender difference in cooperative levels (P = 0.11). Patients over 30 years revealed better cooperation levels compared to other age groups (P < 0.05). For patients of level 1, 53.5% were anesthetized in a way of intravenous induction, while 77.1% out of patients of level 3 were anesthetically induced through inhalation method.

Many dental patients with special needs were not cooperative to receive anesthetic induction. Additional behavioral support may be applied to poorly cooperative patients for the safe and successful clinical outcome.