# Conscious Inhalation Sedation with Nitrous Oxide and Oxygen in Children: A Retrospective Study
## 3 Results  
A total of 371 children (175 females and 196 males) with a mean age of 6.3 \(\pm\) 1.7 years (range: 4-10) were enrolled and included in the study (Table 1). About 59% of the children were younger than 7 years old, while the remaining 41% were between 7 and 10 years old. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c} \hline
**No. of Children** & **371** \\ \hline Gender, \(n\) (\%) & \\ Female & 175 (47.2\%) \\ Male & 196 (52.8\%) \\ Age, years & \\ Mean (SD) & 6.3 (1.7) \\ Min–Max & 4–10 \\ Age range, \(n\) (\%) & \\
4–6 years & 218 (58.8\%) \\
7–10 years & 153 (41.2\%) \\ \hline \end{tabular} Legend: SD = standard deviation.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Patient characteristics. The Venham score decreased significantly from baseline (1.65 \(\pm\) 1.53) to T1 (0.75 \(\pm\) 1.35) (\(p\) < 0.001) and T2 (0.89 \(\pm\) 1.45, \(p\) < 0.001) (Table 2). Statistically significant differences also emerged between T1 and T2 (\(p\) < 0.001). Improvement in Venham score was observed in both females and males, without any statistically significant difference between the two groups. On the contrary, starting from the baseline, the Venham score was higher in younger patients (1.94 \(\pm\) 1.52) than in older ones (1.25 \(\pm\) 1.46) (\(p\) < 0.001). The difference between the two age-range groups decreased at the end of induction (T1) and no statistically significant difference was observed. During the treatment (T2), younger patients reported higher Venham scores (1.10 \(\pm\) 1.58) (\(p\) < 0.001). Before induction (T0), 5.7% of children had a Venham score of 5 points, followed by 9.7% of children with a Venham score of 4 points. Approximately 12% of children showed unwillingness to treat (Venham score equal to 3), while 20.2% appeared tense. 22.1% of children showed some degree of anxiety but were capable of cooperation. Almost 30% of the total sample appeared relaxed and had a positive attitude toward the dentist. At the end of induction (T1), the number of children who protested to disrupt treatment (Venham score 4) or who were completely uncooperative (Venham score 5) decreased from 15.4% (T0) to 7%, and approximately 70% of children appeared relaxed, willing to cooperate, and had a good conversational attitude. During treatment (T2), 9.7% of children reported a Venham score of 4 or 5 points. The number of relaxed children decreased to 64.7%, while tense or unwilling behavior was observed in 8.1% and 6.7% of children, respectively. Complete results are reported in Table 3.  
Regarding the age range, children younger than 7 years had higher levels of uncooperativeness before induction: 7.3% and 11.0% of younger children had Venham scores of 5 and 4 points, respectively, compared with older children (\(p\) < 0.000). At the end of induction, 65.6% of younger children showed a higher level of cooperation (Venham score equal to 0) and 5.5% and 4.6% showed an uncooperative attitude, respectively (\(p\) < 0.024). During treatment, 75.2% of the older children maintained their high level of cooperation, while the younger children who were relaxed during the induction phase showed some level of discomfort (Venham score 1 or 2). The proportion of younger patients with a Venham score of 4 or more points increased again to 13.3%, whereas the proportion of older children with a Venham score of 4 or more points remained below 5%. No significant differences