185 - Trends In Pediatric Dental Emergency Treatment Pre Vs Post COVID-19 Lockdown

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the type of emergency treatment provided post lockdown and to determine which factors affected prevalence. These data will be compared to previous studies to determine if new trends emerged.

Methods: This was a retrospective study. Data was originally collected from June 1, 2020 to September 30,2021. Data was identified using billing codes to determine which patients seen on study dates met the selection criteria. Data points collected included: gender, age, race, ethnicity, insurance type, and billing code procedure.

Results: Sex distribution was almost equal among emergency visit patients. 52% were female and 48% were male. Most of the patients seen were between the ages of 0 and 6 years old (38.4%). Caucasians (53.4%) and African Americans (36.6 %) were the most commonly reported races, and 18.2% of the patients identified as Hispanic ethnicity. Government issued insurance covered 87.9% of patients. while, surgical procedures represented 58.5% of all provided treatments.

Conclusions: Emergency visits were equally distributed by sex. Government issued insurance was heavily represented in the study population. The majority of patients receiving treatments came from early childhood. This agrees with the higher frequency of treatment for primary teeth. Surgery was the most provided treatment post lockdown.