Emergency and urgent dental visits among Medicaid enrollees from 2013 to 2017.
BMC Oral Health
; 20(1): 355, 2020 12 04.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-961322
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
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.METHODS:
Procedures 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.RESULT:
Consistently 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.CONCLUSIONS:
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. Where possible, dental providers could utilize teledental services to triage patients to appropriate care.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Medicaid
/
Dental Care
/
Emergencies
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Child
/
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
/
Middle aged
/
Infant, Newborn
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
BMC Oral Health
Journal subject:
Dentistry
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12903-020-01345-7
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