Dental Conditions Contribute to Avoidable Emergency Room Visits

Dental conditions, alcohol abuse and depression were the top reasons for avoidable emergency department visits nationally, according to a University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) study published in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care. The paper, “Avoidable Emergency Department Visits: A Starting Point,” used data from 424 million emergency department visits in the United States from 2005 to 2011. The investigators report that increasing access to dental and mental health services could reduce unnecessary visits because emergency departments are designed to treat patients in immediate physical danger, not provide specialty care.

The researchers determined that 3.3% of the visits (i.e., 1.4 million interactions) that occurred over the 7-year study period led to patients being discharged without receiving adequate care. In addition, the authors note that nearly 17% of all visits for mood-related disorders were avoidable, as were 10.4% of alcohol-related visits, and 5% percent of dental-related visits.