Patients With Dental Infections Admitted for Care at Increasing Rates

Background: Untreated odontogenic infections may progress to the point where hospitalization is required. Objective: To look at demographic data pertaining to admission of patients treated for dental infections. Design: Retrospective chart audit between 2000 and 2008. Methods: The authors accessed the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a government-sponsored database of >8 million hospital stays from around 1000 hospitals throughout the United States (urban/rural, private/teaching, etc). This database is often used to predict trends at all hospitals in the United States. They looked at the ICD-9 codes for periapical abscesses, and extracted patient age, comorbidities, insurance type, days admitted, and hospital charges. Results: The average age for admitted patients was 37 years, with women the slight majority at 51.1%. The mean length of stay was 2.96 days; costs increased with age and the number of associated medical problems (comorbidities). In total, 18.5% of patients had no insurance, more...