Emergency dental service is still needed--also for regular attenders within a comprehensive insurance system

The aim of this study was to describe types of, and reasons for, emergency visits for regular dental attenders in the Public Dental Health Services (PDHS). The study was based on data from 895 consecutive emergency episodes collected from four PDHS clinics in the county of Ostergötland, Sweden, during a six-month period in 1994/95. Forty per cent of the dental emergency visits included children and adolescents. The most common reasons for attending were material fractures (29%), tooth fractures (19%), pain (19%) and dental traumas (12%). Seventy-three per cent of all patients and 60% of children and adolescents knew the next scheduled revision appointment. In 85% of the cases care-givers and patients were in agreement regarding the urgency of the visit. The care-givers considered 14% of the visits non-urgent, only in 1% they felt that the patient should have come earlier. The results show that emergency visits are common among regular dental care patients, but are dominated nowadays more by answering patients' questions and less by pain relief. Via systematic follow-ups and better learning from the experiences of those who seek emergency dental care, routines could be further developed and considerable benefits achieved concerning both perceived service quality and cost-effectiveness.