Participants should be aware of the following financial/non-financial relationships: . Uma Kelekar, PhD.: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Abstract: Objectives: Over half of emergency department (ED) dental visits in Maryland are from non-Hispanic (NH) Blacks. We compared ED dental visit rate, dentist-population ratios and distances traveled in Maryland between two groups of counties that differed in their share of NH Black populations.
Methods: Using the 2017-2019 State Emergency Department Database (SEDD) data on Maryland, we estimated ED dental visits and distances traveled across 24 counties in Maryland. Using population estimates from the Census, we estimated rates per 100,000 residents. We created two groups of counties – above (1) and below (2) the median percent (14.25%) of NH Blacks population. Using t-tests, we examined differences in ED dental visits, distances traveled and resident-dentist ratios between the two groups of counties.
Results: During 2017-2019, 55.5% of ED dental visits were from NH Black residents. Counties with a higher NH Black population reported a higher volume of ED dental visits (1232) in contrast with counties with a lower NH Black population (779) per 100,000 residents. In contrast, the dentist-population ratio indicated 57 dentists per 100,000 residents in group 1 as opposed to 82 dentists per 100,000 in group 2. Counties with a higher NH Black population recorded a shorter distance traveled to the ED (7.2 versus 9.02). Differences between groups were statistically significant at 95%.
Conclusion: Despite availability of dentists, a high number of ED dental visits in counties with higher proportion of NH black population indicate dental access gaps.
