Assessment of barriers & attitude of pediatric dentist towards the use of inhalation sedation in clinical practice: a mixed method study

Background and aim: Behaviour management is the corner stone of pediatric dentistry. Inhalation Sedation (IS) technique is safe & effective adjuvant in reducing anxiety, and producing analgesia. To assess the attitude of pediatric dentist towards the usage of Inhala-tion sedation and also to investigate the barriers and obstacles faced by them during usage of IS in their routine clinical practice.Materials and methods: Mixed method study design conducted among 200 pediatric den-tist in a metro city. A 18 point questionnaire with 12 closed question & 6 open ended ques-tions was administered to200 pediatric dentist. Quantitative data was presented as percent-age, frequency and qualitative data was thematically analysed.Results: Use of IS in pediatric dentistry was beneficial as an effective Behavior Manage-ment Technique (BMT). Regarding the safety in the usage of IS in dental setup, 90.9 % respondents agreed that IS is safe enough to be used in clinical setup. Parental acceptance of using IS for their child is a variable strata and has individual perceptions attached to it. Qualitative data was thematically analysed and after an in depth interview with different respondents various themes were generated.Conclusion: Significant gap in the knowledge and practice of inhalation sedation among the study population was found. Through qualitative analysis, major barriers in utilisation of IS was identified.