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The Journal of Rural Health : Official... Jun 2021To assess rural-urban differences in dental service use and procedures and to explore the interaction effects of individual- and county-level factors on having dental...
PURPOSE
To assess rural-urban differences in dental service use and procedures and to explore the interaction effects of individual- and county-level factors on having dental service use and procedures.
METHODS
Data were from the 2016 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). We assessed rural-urban differences in 3 outcome variables: number of dental visits (1, 2, or 3+ visits), preventive care procedures (Yes/No), and treatment procedures (Yes/No). The study sample included 8,199 adults ≥ 18 years of age who reported at least 1 dental visit in the past year. Sampling weights embedded in MEPS were incorporated into all the analyses.
FINDINGS
A significant interaction between residential location and race/ethnicity (P = .030) suggested limited access to dental visits for minority groups, especially for blacks in the more rural areas. Adults from a more rural area were less likely to have received a preventive procedure (AOR = 0.55, 95% CI: 0.35-0.87) than those from an urban area. Adults of racial/ethnic minority groups, with lower SES, and without dental insurance were less likely to have received a preventive procedure (all P < .01) but were more likely to have received a treatment procedure (all P < .05).
CONCLUSIONS
The study showed rural adults were less likely to have received preventive dental procedures than their urban counterparts. Racial/ethnic minority groups living in a more rural area had even more limited access to dental services. Innovative service delivery models that integrate telehealth and community-based case management may contribute to addressing these gaps in rural communities.
Topics: Adult; Dental Care; Ethnicity; Health Expenditures; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Minority Groups; Rural Population
PubMed: 32697007
DOI: 10.1111/jrh.12500 -
Journal of the Indian Society of... 2022Emojis are used to communicate emotional content as conversational indicators. Emojis of human faces are unrivaled in communication since they can discern between...
BACKGROUND
Emojis are used to communicate emotional content as conversational indicators. Emojis of human faces are unrivaled in communication since they can discern between several basic emotions with great precision while also being universal.
AIM
Assessment of children's emotions before, during, and after the dental treatment procedure: An emoji-based study.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 85 children, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years, were separated into four groups. Group 1 required local anesthetic for restoration, while Group 2 required extraction. Pulp treatment was in Group 3 and oral prophylaxis was in Group 4. All groups used an animated emoji scale (AES) to quantify anxiety before, during, and after the dental treatment procedure.
RESULTS
There was a statistically significant difference when the mean scores of the four treatment groups were compared before, during, and after the procedure. When Group 2 was compared to Groups 1, 3, and 4 there was a statistically significant difference in the anxiety of the research participant before, during, and after the procedures (P = 0.01). Groups 2, 3, and 4 were statistically significant after the treatment procedure (P = 0.01).
CONCLUSION
The findings of this study suggest that the AES can be a useful tool in tracking a patient's emotions during the dental treatment procedure to initiate appropriate behavior management.
Topics: Humans; Child; Emotions; Anxiety Disorders; Anesthesia, Local; Anesthetics, Local; Dental Care
PubMed: 36861559
DOI: 10.4103/jisppd.jisppd_414_22 -
Journal of Occupational Health 2023Dental check-ups at the workplace provide the opportunity for early detection of dental diseases. Dental check-ups during working hours could reduce the number of days...
OBJECTIVES
Dental check-ups at the workplace provide the opportunity for early detection of dental diseases. Dental check-ups during working hours could reduce the number of days of absence from work due to visits to dental clinics outside the workplace. Although health check-ups are provided to workers in Japan, dental check-ups is not mandatory. This study aimed to determine the association between the place of dental check-ups and absenteeism due to visits to the dental clinic.
METHODS
This cross-sectional study used data from an online self-reported worker survey conducted for 2 weeks in March 2017. We applied linear regression analysis with robust variance to determine the association between the place of dental check-ups and absenteeism due to dental clinic visits while adjusting for sociodemographic, health, and oral health covariates.
RESULTS
The average age of the 3930 participants was 43.3 ± 11.7 years, and 52.3% were male. The number of days of absenteeism due to dental clinic visits in the past year for those who received check-ups only at the dental clinic and at the workplace were 0.57 ± 2.67 days and 0.21 ± 1.20 days, respectively. After adjusting for covariates, it was found that those who received dental check-ups at the workplace had 0.35 (95% CI, 0.12-0.58) fewer days of absence than those who received dental check-ups at the dental clinic.
CONCLUSION
Workers who received dental check-ups at the workplace were associated with fewer days of absence due to dental visits than those who received at the dental clinic.
Topics: Adult; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Absenteeism; Cross-Sectional Studies; East Asian People; Surveys and Questionnaires; Workplace; Dental Health Services; Ambulatory Care; Dental Care
PubMed: 37354491
DOI: 10.1002/1348-9585.12415 -
Health Services Research Feb 2022To examine whether quality of dental care varies by age and over time and whether community-level characteristics explain these patterns.
OBJECTIVE
To examine whether quality of dental care varies by age and over time and whether community-level characteristics explain these patterns.
DATA SOURCE
Deidentified medical and dental claims from a commercial insurer from January 2015 to December 2019.
STUDY DESIGN
A retrospective cohort study. The primary outcome was a composite quality score, derived from seven dental quality measures (DQMs), with higher values corresponding to better quality. Hierarchical regression models identified person- and zip code-level factors associated with the quality.
DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS
Continuously enrolled US dental insurance beneficiaries younger than 21 years of age.
PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Quality was assessed for 4.88 million person-years covering 1.31 million persons. Overall quality slightly improved over time, mostly driven by substantial improvements among children aged 0-5 years by 0.153 points/year (95% confidence interval [CI]:0.151, 0.156). Quality was poorest and declined over time among adolescents with only 20.5% of DQMs met as compared to 42.6% among aged 0-5 years in 2019. Dental professional shortage, median household income, percentages of African Americans, unemployed, and less-educated populations at the zip code level were associated with the composite score.
CONCLUSION
Quality of dental care among adolescents remains low, and place of residence influenced the quality. Increasing the supply of dentists and oral health promotion strategies targeting adolescents and low-performing localities should be explored.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Dental Care; Dental Health Services; Health Services Accessibility; Health Services Research; Humans; Infant; Insurance, Dental; Insurance, Health; Private Sector; Retrospective Studies; United States
PubMed: 34327703
DOI: 10.1111/1475-6773.13713 -
BMC Oral Health Sep 2022This study aims to evaluate the association between smoking habits and dental care utilization and cost in individuals registered with the Japan Health Insurance...
BACKGROUND
This study aims to evaluate the association between smoking habits and dental care utilization and cost in individuals registered with the Japan Health Insurance Association, Osaka branch.
METHODS
We used the administrative claims database and specific medical check-up data and included 226,359 participants, who visited dental institutions, underwent dental examinations, and underwent specific medical checkups, with smoking data from April 2016 to March 2017. We calculated propensity scores with age, gender, exercise, eating habits, alcohol intake, and sleep. We also compared dental care utilization with the total cost of each procedure.
RESULTS
According to propensity score matching, 62,692 participants were selected for each group. Compared to non-smokers, smokers were younger, and a higher proportion were men. Smokers tended to skip breakfast, have dinner just before bed, and drink alcohol. After adjusting for potential confounding factors with propensity score matching, the mean annual dental cost among smokers was significantly higher than non-smokers. The prevalence of pulpitis, missing teeth, and apical periodontitis were higher among smokers than non-smokers, while inlay detachment, caries, and dentine hypersensitivity were higher among non-smokers.
CONCLUSION
This study suggests that smokers have higher dental cost consisted of progressive dental caries, missing teeth, and uncontrolled acute inflammation that necessitated the use of medications. It is suggested that smokers tend to visit the dentist after their symptoms become severe.
Topics: Alcohol Drinking; Dental Care; Dental Caries; Female; Humans; Male; Smokers; Smoking
PubMed: 36056338
DOI: 10.1186/s12903-022-02397-7 -
Cadernos de Saude Publica 2020Adverse events pose a serious problem for quality of healthcare. Dental practice is eminently invasive and involves close and routine contact with secretions; as such,... (Review)
Review
Adverse events pose a serious problem for quality of healthcare. Dental practice is eminently invasive and involves close and routine contact with secretions; as such, it is potentially prone to the occurrence of adverse events. Various patient safety studies have been developed in the last two decades, but mostly in the hospital setting due to the organizational complexity, severity of the cases, and diversity and specificity of the procedures. The objective was to identify and explore studies on patient safety in Dentistry. An integrative literature review was performed in MEDLINE via PubMed, Scopus via Portal Capes, and the Regional Portal of the Virtual Health Library, using the terms patient safety and dentistry in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, starting in 2000. The research cycle in patient safety was used, as proposed by the World Health Organization to classify studies. We analyzed 91 articles. The most common adverse events were allergies, infections, diagnostic delay or failure, and technical error. Measures to mitigate the problem highlight the need to improve communications, encourage reporting, and search for tools to assist the management of care. The authors found a lack of studies on implementation and assessment of the impact of proposals for improvement. Dentistry has made progress in patient safety but still needs to transpose the results into practice, where efforts are crucial to prevent adverse events.
Topics: Brazil; Communication; Delayed Diagnosis; Dental Care; Humans; Patient Safety
PubMed: 33084835
DOI: 10.1590/0102-311X00197819 -
BMC Oral Health Jul 2022Children and adolescents with special health care needs (SHCN) have higher unmet dental needs, but the potential mechanisms by which parental factors can influence...
BACKGROUND
Children and adolescents with special health care needs (SHCN) have higher unmet dental needs, but the potential mechanisms by which parental factors can influence dental care use have not been determined. Parenting a child with SHCN can present special demands that affect parents' well-being and, in turn, their caregiving. Hence, the study's overall aim was to apply the stress process model to examine the role of parental psychosocial factors in the association between child SHCN and dental care. Specifically, the study tested hypotheses regarding how (a) children's SHCN status is associated with child dental care (unmet dental needs and lack of preventive dental visits), both directly and indirectly via parental psychosocial factors (parenting stress, instrumental, and emotional social support) and (b) parental social support buffers the association between parenting stress and child dental care.
METHODS
A secondary data analysis of the 2011-2012 US National Survey of Children's Health was performed for 6- to 11-year-old children (n = 27,874) and 12- to 17-year-old adolescents (n = 31,328). Our age-stratified models estimated associations between child SHCN status and parental psychosocial factors with two child dental care outcomes: parent-reported unmet child dental needs and lack of preventive dental care.
RESULTS
Parents of children with (vs without) SHCN reported higher unmet child dental needs, higher parenting stress, and lower social support (instrumental and emotional). Instrumental, but not emotional, parental support was associated with lower odds of their child unmet dental needs in both age groups. The association between parenting stress and child dental care outcomes was modified by parental social support.
CONCLUSION
Differences existed in child unmet dental needs based on SHCN status, even after adjusting for parental psychosocial factors. SHCN status was indirectly associated with unmet dental needs via parental instrumental support among adolescents, and parental instrumental support buffered the negative association between parenting stress and both child dental care outcomes. Hence, parental social support was an important determinant of child dental care and partially explained the dental care disparities in adolescents with SHCN.
Topics: Adolescent; Child; Dental Care; Health Services Needs and Demand; Humans; Parenting; Parents; Social Support
PubMed: 35818050
DOI: 10.1186/s12903-022-02314-y -
British Dental Journal Feb 2022Introduction Around one-third of the UK population are 'problem-orientated dental attenders', only seeking care when suffering with dental pain and often on a repeated...
Introduction Around one-third of the UK population are 'problem-orientated dental attenders', only seeking care when suffering with dental pain and often on a repeated basis to secondary care. Little is known about attendance in primary care. The aim here was to examine the period prevalence of repeat urgent care attenders and establish predictors of repeat attendance in primary care.Methods Data on urgent and emergency dental care attendances in primary dental care in the North East and Cumbria were analysed from 2013-2019. Variables included: patient sex; ten-year age band; lower super output area; and Index of Multiple Deprivation. Period prevalence was calculated and data were considered year by year to identify trends in attendances. Analysis was with descriptive statistics and predictors of repeat attendance were identified using logistic regression modelling.Results Over the six-year period, there were 601,432 attendances for urgent primary dental care, equating to a period prevalence of 2.76% for the geographic population studied. In total, 16.15% of attendances were repeat attendances (period prevalence 0.45%) and predictors included being a woman and residence in deprived and rural areas. All urgent care attendances decreased over the six-year period, with one-off attendances beginning to increase again in 2019, while repeat attendances stabilised.Conclusion Interventions to encourage regular dental attendances should be targeted at patients from the most deprived and rural areas of the North East and Cumbria; however, a decrease in repeat attendance was noted in these areas.
Topics: Ambulatory Care; Dental Care; Emergency Medical Services; Emergency Service, Hospital; Female; Humans; Prevalence
PubMed: 35149813
DOI: 10.1038/s41415-022-3886-6 -
Health Affairs (Project Hope) Feb 2023Traditional Medicare does not cover routine dental care, but little is known about transitions in dental outcomes upon reaching Medicare eligibility at age sixty-five....
Traditional Medicare does not cover routine dental care, but little is known about transitions in dental outcomes upon reaching Medicare eligibility at age sixty-five. Using data from the 2010-19 Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys, we examined dental insurance, utilization, and outcomes among US adults before and after age sixty-five, using a regression discontinuity design and segmented regression analysis. Among 97,108 US adults representing a weighted population of 104,787,300 people, complete edentulism, or the loss of all teeth, increased by 4.8 percentage points at age sixty-five, and the percentage of people receiving restorative dental care decreased by 8.7 percentage points. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage, which may offer a dental benefit, was not associated with greater use of dental services relative to traditional Medicare, and Medicare Advantage enrollees had a significantly larger drop in dental spending from private insurance at age sixty-five than traditional Medicare enrollees. Expanding Medicare to cover dental services may help counteract these effects among all enrollees.
Topics: Aged; Humans; Medicare Part C; United States; Dental Care
PubMed: 36745837
DOI: 10.1377/hlthaff.2021.01899 -
British Dental Journal Apr 2022
Topics: Ambulatory Care; Child; Dental Care; Humans
PubMed: 35459806
DOI: 10.1038/s41415-022-4208-8