Abstract
BackgroundBetter understanding of the frequency of dental emergencies and the procedures performed during those emergency visits can help providers, insurers, and policymakers understand workforce and care provision needs.MethodsProcedures performed at an emergency dental encounter and in the encounter following that encounter are assessed. Emergency dental encounters are those with a CDT code of D0140, D0160, or D0170. Data was analyzed from the IBM Watson Medicaid Marketscan data from 2013 to 2017, a nationally representative dental and medical claims database from 13 deidentified states in the United States.ResultConsistently over time, about 10% of all dental encounters are due to a dental emergency. 28% of emergency dental encounters had no other procedure performed during those encounters. When other procedures were performed during the encounter, the majority were diagnostic in nature, primarily radiographs. Among patients who returned to the dentists following an emergency visit, 43% returned for more definitive dental treatment, most within 30 days.ConclusionsThe majority of dental emergency encounters do not result in definitive treatment, rather patients often return to the dentist at a later date for that treatment. Where possible, dental providers could utilize teledental services to triage patients to appropriate care.
Highlights
Better understanding of the frequency of dental emergencies and the procedures performed during those emergency visits can help providers, insurers, and policymakers understand workforce and care provision needs
The majority of dental emergency encounters do not result in definitive treatment, rather patients often return to the dentist at a later date for that treatment
21% 21% 17% 15% Non-Emergency Visits. These numbers were nearly identical from 2013 to 2017 (Fig. 1), demonstrating stability in these estimates over time. 28% of emergency dental encounters had no other procedure performed during those encounters, other than the emergency visit code, while another 36% had only one additional dental procedure performed during the visit (Fig. 2)
Summary
Better understanding of the frequency of dental emergencies and the procedures performed during those emergency visits can help providers, insurers, and policymakers understand workforce and care provision needs. It is important for health care systems to have a general understanding of what constitutes a dental emergency to ensure that patients have access to essential care and establish best practice pathways for determining appropriate care location. ED resources and care teams should be focused on the management of infectious and critically ill patients, so it is vital that dental emergencies are kept in dental settings where appropriate and definitive treatment can be established
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