Dental Emergencies Among Patients of the Health Care Access Facility at the University Hospital of Nancy

Overview

The dental Health Care Access Facility at the University Hospital of Nancy opened in January 2023. The patients ot the dental Health Care Access Facility consulting the dental department have largely been treated as dental emergencies. However, to date, no study has been carried out into the nature of these patients' consultations or treatments. This new patient management has necessitated adaptations within the dental department, but there are no data to enable us to better understand and organize the care of these patients. Moreover, the cost of dental emergencies has not been estimated. Our hypotheses are that patients of the dental Health Care Access Facility consulted mainly the dental departement for painful emergencies and that the emergency dental cares were provided rapidly and at low cost. On the other hand, patient flow was probably correlated with the days when a social worker of the dental Health Care Access Facility was present, referring patients to the dental department. The main aim of the study is to describe the nature of emergency dental care provided to patients of the dental Health Care Access Facility at the dental department of the University Hospital of Nancy. The secondary objectives are: i) to describe the temporality of dental emergency consultations for patients of the dental Health Care Access Facility, ii) to describe the rate of dental consultations secondary to an initial emergency consultation, and iii) describe the direct cost of emergency consultations and treatment.

In France, the Health Care Access Facilities are gateway medical and social services for people who need healthcare but have difficulty accessing it due to lack of social protection, living conditions or financial difficulties. They provide access to medical and dental consultations. The development of dental Health Care Access Facilities across France is helping to improve the territorial coverage of primary care services. Consultations, diagnostic and treatments are provided free of charge to patients of the Health Care Access Facilities.

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