Determinants of Demand in the Public Dental Emergency Service

Abstract

Introduction Although dental emergencies are primarily aimed at pain relief, in practice, dental emergency services have been overwhelmed by the massive inflow of patients with less complex cases, which could be resolved at basic levels of health care. They frequently become the main gateway to the system. We investigated the determinant factors of demand at the Central Dental Emergency Unit in Bauru, São Paulo, Brazil. Materials and methods The questionnaire was applied to 521 users to evaluate sociodemographic profile; factors that led users to seek the service at the central dental emergency; perception of service offered. Results About 80.4% of users went directly to the central dental emergency, even before seeking basic health units. The reasons were difficulty to be attended (34.6%) and incompatible time (9.8%). To the perception of the necessity of the service, responses were problem as urgent (78.3%) and pain was the main complaint (69.1%). The profile we found was unmarried (41.5%), male (52.2%), white (62.8%), aged 30 to 59 (52.2%), incomplete basic education (41.6%), family income up to 2 minimum wages (47.4%), and no medical/dental plan (88.9%). Conclusion It was concluded that the users of central dental emergency come from all sectors of the city, due to difficult access to basic health units; they consider their complaint urgent; and they are satisfied with the service offered. Clinical significance To meet the profile of the user urgency's service so that it is not overloaded with demand that can be fulfilled in basic health units. How to cite this article Matsumoto MSA, Gatti MAN, de Conti MHS, de AP Simeão SF, de Oliveira Braga Franzolin S, Marta SN. Determinants of Demand in the Public Dental Emergency Service. J Contemp Dent Pract 2017;18(2):156-161.

Dental emergency: scoping review

“…A low number of studies used the variables origin, ethnicity and health predispositions. An inverse relationship between education and emergency use was seen in both points of the network (3/4, 75%)[17,20,24], one study refers to this inversion through maternal education[20]. In PHC and DEC, there was greater use by married individuals, the majority of which employed or autonomous (n=2) 20,23 .…”

“…In PHC, an average of two children was found, as well as double or triple shift jobs (n=1)[20]. In DEC, the majority of those attended originated from the service’s coverage area (n=1), there is a higher chance of use by people from neighborhoods deemed as having greater social exclusion rate (n=1)[24] and rural residents accessed it less often (n=2)[16,25]. In the contextual analysis of the PHC, the group of services with the greatest ratio of dental emergency was not the one whose area was the most vulnerable to health (n=1)[26].…”

“…There was a declining ratio between the income of users and the use of emergency services at both points of the network (n=2)[20,24]. A study conducted in the DEC reported that most users do not have health insurance and travel by bus to the emergency[24].…”

“…There was a declining ratio between the income of users and the use of emergency services at both points of the network (n=2)[20,24]. A study conducted in the DEC reported that most users do not have health insurance and travel by bus to the emergency[24]. When analyzing the expansion of the oral health team (OHT) in the PHC network over a three-year period, one study noticed that, in relation to the total number of appointments, there was a statistically significant reduction during the studied period that was justified by the year of greatest expansion.…”

“…The need perceived by the majority of users that led them to use the services was pain (n=7)[16–18,20,22,24,25]. One study showed that post-traumatic injury complaints were more frequent in men and there was a noteworthy difference by age group, in which the highest prevalence of trauma and post-traumatic injuries was 0 to 5 years[22].…”