Emergency dental visits make up a large portion of the total visits to a dental clinic, but there is no data available with regard to patient characteristics in a dental emergency clinic in the United States. Objectives: To study patient characteristics, diagnostic classifications and treatment decisions of dental emergency visits in a general dentistry clinic. Methods: Patients who have not received any preventive care in the past two years were categorized as dental emergency only (DEO) patients. Patients who have attended regularly maintenance dental care in the past two years were categorized as regular dental care (RDC) patient. Demographics, diagnoses and treatment decisions of restorable teeth were evaluated. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square tests were used for data analysis. Results: Patients between 20 and 40 years were the predominant age group and women:men ratio was 1.7:1 in this dental emergency population. A majority of the patients (65.3%) were classified as DEO subjects. African-Americans (47.5%, 96/202) was the largest racial ethnic group and nearly two-thirds of the African-American DEO patients had dental insurance. Toothache was the most common complaints (90.6%). The most frequent diagnosis was acute pulpitis (45.5%). Though root canal therapy was presented as the treatment of choice for restorable teeth, 69.0% (49/71) of these teeth were extracted at the time of emergency visit. Patients' insurance status (p>0.99), gender (p>0.99) and race (p>0.83) had no association with treatment decisions of extraction or root canal therapy. Geographic location of patients' residence tended to have a statistically significant association with treatment decisions, with urban residents (p<0.05) and rural residents (p=0.07) had a tendency towards choosing the option of extraction more often than suburban residents. Conclusions: Factors other than financial barriers prevented many patients from utilizing preventive dental services and that tooth loss is the most common consequence of an emergency visit.

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