Informatics in Dental Education

Eisner, John

doi:10.1007/978-1-4613-9160-9_9

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

References 13 publications

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“…Dental informatics can assist in patient care [ 22 ] with new methods grounded in machine learning that can be used in the detection of teeth, caries, restored teeth, dental crowns, dental implants, prostheses for dentofacial deformities [ 23 ], oral pathology [ 24 ], oral cancer screening [ 25 ], and endodontic treatment[ 26 ]. Dental informatics has phenomenal potential in evaluating public health initiatives, and it could be used for the assessment of health goals achievements [ 26 ] as well as in education [ 27 ]; however, it has functional limitations resulting from medical and dental patient care not being stored in the same system. Dental practices typically silo their health care delivery systems, hindering easy access to institutional analysis [ 10 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Emergency Room Visits for Nontraumatic Oral Health Conditions in a Hospital Serving Rural Appalachia: Dental Informatics Study

Khanna¹,

Cecchetti²,

Bhardwaj³

et al. 2022

JMIR Form Res

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Background In the Appalachian region, a variety of factors will impact the ability of patients to maintain good oral health, which is essential for overall health and well-being. Oral health issues have led to high costs within the Appalachian hospital system. Dental informatics examines preventable dental conditions to understand the problem and suggest cost containment. Objective We aimed to demonstrate the value of dental informatics in dental health care in rural Appalachia by presenting a research study that measured emergency room (ER) use for nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs) and the associated economic impact in a hospital system that primarily serves rural Appalachia. Methods The Appalachian Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s oral health data mart with relevant data on patients (n=8372) with ER encounters for NTDC between 2010 and 2018 was created using Appalachian Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s research data warehouse. Exploratory analysis was then performed by developing an interactive Tableau dashboard. Dental Informatics provided the platform whereby the overall burden of these encounters, along with disparities in burden by age groups, gender, and primary payer, was assessed. Results Dental informatics was essential in understanding the overall problem and provided an interactive and easily comprehensible visualization of the situation. We found that ER visits for NTDCs declined by 40% from 2010 to 2018, but a higher percentage of visits required inpatient care and surgical intervention. Conclusions Dental informatics can provide the necessary tools and support to health care systems and state health departments across Appalachia to address serious dental problems. In this case, informatics helped identify that although inappropriate ER use for NTDCs diminished due to ER diversion efforts, they remain a significant burden. Through its visualization and data extraction techniques, dental informatics can help produce policy changes by promoting models that improve access to preventive care.

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