Pandemic-Associated Dental Office Closures Associated With Increased Use of Emergency Departments for Dental Conditions in Publicly Insured Children In New York State.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

All traditional dental clinics were closed from March to May 2020 due to the COVID-19 shutdown, potentially causing additional strain on hospital emergency departments (EDs) to care for patients with dental conditions. We evaluated the impact of pandemic-associated dental office closures on the share of dental conditions managed in EDs among children on Medicaid.

Methods

We quantified the change in the dental-related ED burden among publicly insured children before, during, and after pandemic dental office closures across NY using 2018-2020 New York State (NY) Medicaid claims data among children under age 19 using a difference-in-differences approach.

Results

After controlling for seasonality, dental practice closures in 2020 in NY led to a 2.31 percentage

SUBMITTER: Huang SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11932651 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature