Longitudinal Outcomes for Child Emergency Patients in a High-Risk Population

Objectives: Children with early childhood caries can suffer from pain, the inability to eat, missed school days, and low self esteem. However, it is the minorities and the poor who are more likely to be impacted most when it comes to dental disease and pain. The goal of this study was to bring to light data gathered from a pediatric dental clinic in a low income area of San Antonio, Texas. Records, over a one year time period were analyzed to determine the quantity of emergency patients that actually completed comprehensive care.

Methods: Charts from January 2005 through January 2006 were obtained from the Ricardo Salinas Dental Clinic. Children over the age of 18 were excluded from the study. Only emergency patients that came to the clinic with pain due to caries were focused upon. The pool of emergency patients was comprised with a specific ADA code. Patients meeting the inclusion criteria were evaluated to determine if the emergency patients finished the treatment plans assigned to them.

Results: 380 cases were observed. However, 32 of them were excluded due to trauma cases, 27 excluded due to missing files, and 17 of them were excluded due to other types of emergencies. Out of the 304 cases left, 143 never returned to the clinic after the emergency. 161 cases did return to the clinic, but only 100 of the 161 completed care.

Conclusions: More than half (67.11%) of the pediatric emergency cases due to pain from dental caries did not start and/or complete treatment in this low income area.

This work was supported by NIDCR, T-32 Grant #DE14318-CO STAR Program.