Visits for Nontraumatic Dental Conditions in Ontario's Health Care System

Physicians' offices and emergency departments (EDs) are not suited for addressing nontraumatic dental conditions (NTDCs); however, significant numbers of people in Canada, including Ontario, visit such settings for their dental complaints. Also, people sometimes visit hospitals for day surgery to get their complicated dental conditions treated. This reflects the inefficient usage of the health care system and gaps in accessing timely dental care.

We assessed trends in the burden of NTDCs in Ontario by estimating the visits made for such conditions to physicians, EDs, and hospitals for day surgery. Aggregate data for years 2001 to 2015 were retrieved from Intellihealth Ontario. Descriptive analysis was conducted to calculate rates of visits as stratified by sex, age groups (0 to 6, 7 to 18, 19 to 64, and ≥65 y), and jurisdictions (public health unit level).

On average, 70,274 visits to physicians, 51,861 to EDs, and 13,889 to hospital day surgery are made each year in Ontario for NTDCs, which costs approximately CAN$29 million. Children aged 0 to 6 y visit more than their counterparts. Statistically significant increasing trends for physician and ED visits were observed over the years. Analyses show large variations in rates of visits across public health units, with higher rates in rural communities.

A large number of visits for NTDCs, with jurisdictional variations, were consistently made to nondental health care settings in Ontario over the last 15 y. Central- and local-level policy options for optimizing resources and health care system use are required.

The findings of this study will provide oral and general health professionals a comprehensive understanding about the ineffective usage of a health care system for nontraumatic dental conditions. Quantifying the burden and associated dollars spent will promote crucial policy discussions to explore the possible options for providing emergency and essential dental services for all Canadians and possible equitable options to enhance access to dental care for vulnerable populations in Canadian society.