Med Inform (Lond). 1991 Jan-Mar; 16(1): 15-24.

Choice of anaesthesia in dental operations.

Sun S.

Department of Medical Informatics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

Choice of anaesthesia between drug and acupuncture for dental surgeries has been a historical issue. Using the tool of decision analysis and clinical data from the medical literature, we developed an adequate mechanism for decision-making in the choice of dental anaesthesia. Our original approach toward the solution of this issue was two-dimensional decision analysis. In general our analytical results revealed that drugs are the preferred selection of anaesthesia for dental surgery. However, this conclusion is subject to the influence of a patient's physical and/or mental state. A typical decision analysis indicated that acupuncture analgesia is the preferred selection for dental patients with myocardial infarction.