Dentists in the US should be integrated into the hospital team

Abstract

Few dentists play integrated roles within hospital settings and few hospital emergency rooms have dentists. Existing research shows that only 67% of ER visits for dental problems are managed appropriately. Every year Americans die in hospital after being admitted because of dental disease and a recent study found that 20 people died after such hospitalisations in the United States in 2008. Authors of the current correspondence have conducted extensive research on characteristics of emergency room visits and hospitalisations due to various dental conditions using a nationwide dataset for the United States. This opinion article is intended to provoke discussion about the restructuring of hospitals to integrate oral health professionals into the hospital team.