Emergency Department Visits for Tooth Disorders: United States, 2020–2022

Introduction: On average, more than $45 billion in U.S. productivity is lost each year due to untreated dental disease. Oral disease can cause pain and infections, which lead to unplanned visits for emergency care, especially among those who do not have access to routine dental care. This report uses data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NHAMCS) to study emergency department (ED) visits with either a reason for visit or diagnosis of a tooth disorder in 2020-2022.

Methods: Data in this report are from NHAMCS, a nationally representative annual survey of nonfederal general and short-stay hospitals. Results are presented from 2020 through 2022. Estimates and their corresponding variances were calculated using SAS-callable SUDAAN. Differences between percentages were evaluated using two-sided significance  t  tests at the 0.05 level. Linear regression was used to test the significance of slope.

Key findings: Tooth disorders accounted for an annual average of 1,944,000 ED visits during 2020-2022. The largest percentage of ED visits for tooth disorders was made by adults ages 25-34 (29.2%). White non-Hispanic people accounted for the largest percentage of ED visits for tooth disorders (52.7%), followed by Black non-Hispanic people (31.9%), and Hispanic people (14.5%). The majority of visits for tooth disorders had Medicaid as the primary expected source of payment (55.4%). Opioids as the sole pain relief drug given or prescribed at ED visits for tooth disorders decreased from 38.1% in 2014-2016 to 16.5% in 2020-2022. Visits with only nonopioid analgesics increased from 20.0% in 2014-2016 to 38.4% in 2020-2022.