Emergency Department Visits for Dental Conditions
Emergency Department Visits for Dental Conditions
Each year, hospitals save many lives by treating acute and life-threatening conditions in hospital emergency departments (EDs). Many patients seek emergency treatment for dental conditions, such as caries and periapical abscesses. However, research has shown that hospitals are inefficient at managing dental diseaseand that only 67% of dental conditions are managed appropriately in an ED.
A major concern among the dental community is that postponement of regular, preventive dental care until a life-threatening problem develops prompts unnecessary ED visits that consume scarce and valuable hospital resources. Neglect of routine oral healthcare could stem from a lack of understanding of dental disease and awareness that an untreated dental infection can be fatal. Alternatively, a lack of financial resources could be a factor for many patients who neglect dental disease until treatment becomes unavoidable.
The objective of our research was to highlight the burden of treatment of dental conditions in hospitals in the United States. We are strong proponents of the idea that federal and state monies should be used to help low-income patients access dental care because, we believe, this preventive approach will save the United States money in the long term. We aimed to identify patient characteristics (such as insurance status or income) and dental conditions that lead to hospital visits and to quantify the hospital charges associated with ED treatment and hospitalization for dental conditions.
In a series of studies, we used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), both of which are components of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. These datasets are available through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland. The NIS and NEDS are large, multistate datasets from a 20% stratified sample of US community hospitals, and each contains information about 8 million hospital visits each year. Each sample encompasses data from more than 1000 hospitals situated across 42 states. The NIS and NEDS are the largest all-payer health databases in the United States.
All estimates obtained from the NIS and NEDS datasets were projected to the national level by using a discharge weight variable assigned to each hospital discharge. Simple descriptive statistics (frequencies) were used to summarize the prevalence estimates of each dental condition. We identified ED visits and hospitalizations by using ICD-9-CM codes. Details on the severity of each condition, extent of infection, and the number of teeth involved were not collected in our dataset.
Emergency Department Visits for Dental Conditions
Each year, hospitals save many lives by treating acute and life-threatening conditions in hospital emergency departments (EDs). Many patients seek emergency treatment for dental conditions, such as caries and periapical abscesses. However, research has shown that hospitals are inefficient at managing dental diseaseand that only 67% of dental conditions are managed appropriately in an ED.
A major concern among the dental community is that postponement of regular, preventive dental care until a life-threatening problem develops prompts unnecessary ED visits that consume scarce and valuable hospital resources. Neglect of routine oral healthcare could stem from a lack of understanding of dental disease and awareness that an untreated dental infection can be fatal. Alternatively, a lack of financial resources could be a factor for many patients who neglect dental disease until treatment becomes unavoidable.
A Review of Our Research Objectives
The objective of our research was to highlight the burden of treatment of dental conditions in hospitals in the United States. We are strong proponents of the idea that federal and state monies should be used to help low-income patients access dental care because, we believe, this preventive approach will save the United States money in the long term. We aimed to identify patient characteristics (such as insurance status or income) and dental conditions that lead to hospital visits and to quantify the hospital charges associated with ED treatment and hospitalization for dental conditions.
Research Methodology for Study Series
In a series of studies, we used data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), both of which are components of the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project. These datasets are available through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality in Rockville, Maryland. The NIS and NEDS are large, multistate datasets from a 20% stratified sample of US community hospitals, and each contains information about 8 million hospital visits each year. Each sample encompasses data from more than 1000 hospitals situated across 42 states. The NIS and NEDS are the largest all-payer health databases in the United States.
All estimates obtained from the NIS and NEDS datasets were projected to the national level by using a discharge weight variable assigned to each hospital discharge. Simple descriptive statistics (frequencies) were used to summarize the prevalence estimates of each dental condition. We identified ED visits and hospitalizations by using ICD-9-CM codes. Details on the severity of each condition, extent of infection, and the number of teeth involved were not collected in our dataset.
