Access to urgent dental care: a scoping review

To summarise the literature on urgent dental care and to identify research priorities on the organisation and delivery of urgent dental services.

Scoping review using Andersen's behavioural model of health service utilisation for a framework analysis of the data.

Gaps in the literature, defined as those factors and interactions identified by Andersen's model as having a contributory role in access to health services that were not evident in the source papers.

Fifty-six papers met the inclusion criteria for the review. The factors most often considered were; demographic, socioeconomic, perceived and evaluated need, and health behaviours. Patient outcomes of evaluated health and quality of life following urgent dental care were the least studied variables, with the exception of patient satisfaction. No studies were identified on community values/norms of people accessing urgent dental care, on health economic evaluations or on studies of how urgent dental services mitigate use of other medical services. No studies were identified on urgent need for populations living in water fluoridated areas or on the relationship between service design and efficient or effective access as measured by patient outcomes.

Future research on patient outcomes and the comparison of different service models for urgent dental care through measures of equity, effectiveness and efficiency of access are needed to inform future policy and organisation of these services.