Trends, demographics, and conditions of emergency dental visits in Taiwan 1997–2013

Background/purpose: The disparate or irregular dental care was associated with acute clinical problems that may lead to care seeking for emergency visits. The aim of this study was to determine the time trends, demographics, and conditions of emergency dental (ED) visits in Taiwan. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted to analyze the insurance reimbursement of dental care services in National Health Insurance Research Database. The demographic characteristics and age-period effects of ED visits were estimated by multivariate Poisson regression. In addition, the top causes of ED visits were evaluated and stratified by traumatic and non-traumatic conditions. Results: The prevalence of ED visits were 3.18, 5.44, and 4.83 (per 10,000 persons) in 1997, 2002, and 2013, respectively. The primary diagnosis code for ED visits was 522 ‘pulp and periapical tissues’. Pulpitis (522.0), cellulitis (528.3), acute periodontitis (523.3), and caries (521.0) were the top 4 non-traumatic reasons for seeking ED visits. The top 3 traumatic conditions were open wound of internal structures of mouth without mention of complication (873.6), open wound of face without mention of complication (873.4), and loss of teeth due to trauma (525.1). The higher prevalence of ED visits were found in male (aRR = 1.50, 95% CI: 1.49–1.51), 6 y/o group (aRR = 1.56, 95% CI: 1.53–1.59), east region (aRR = 1.27, 95% CI: 1.25–1.29), and dependent coverage group (aRR = 1.16, 95% CI: 1.14–1.19). Conclusion: Taken together, these demographic data could serve as a reference for the authorities concerned to improve the current situation of ED in Taiwan.