Elsevier

Journal of Infection

Volume 83, Issue 4, October 2021, Pages 496-522
Journal of Infection

Letter to the Editor
Significant increase in hospital admissions for the management of severe dental infection in England 2000–2020

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2021.07.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • •

    Dental infection is commonly caused by the preventable condition dental caries (decay).

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    Dental infection should be treated early by incision and drainage, extraction of the tooth or initiation of root treatment.

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    Severe dental infection is a potentially life threatening condition requiring hospitalisation for surgical drainage and airway support.

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    Over the last twenty years admissions to Englands hospitals with severe dental infection have increased more than 3.5 fold.

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    In 2019–2020 the number of bed days associated with the management of severe dental infection was 5629.

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    Policymakers should investigate this worrying phenomenon to identify the cause and to prevent these avoidable admissions.

Section snippets

Dear editor,

Severe odontogenic infection is the most serious consequence of dental disease.1 Maxillo-facial cellulitis is most commonly a result of dental caries where the carious lesion extends into the tooth pulp causing irreversible pulpal inflammation leading to pupal necrosis and subsequent peri-apical abscess. Spread of the infection beyond the immediate periapical area is influenced by both local anatomic considerations such as location of tooth apex to mucosal surfaces, tissue planes, muscle

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Availability of data and material

Not applicable.

Authors contributions

All authors have contributed to the manuscript.

Patient and public involvement

None, paper is of interest to patients and public. An observational study.

Transparency declaration

The author affirms the manuscript is an honest accurate and transparent account of the study being reported; that no important aspects of the study have been omitted; and that any discrepancies from the study as planned have been explained.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors

Declaration of Competing Interest

None.

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the source of the Hospital Episode Statistics data as NHS Digital.

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  • J. Park et al.

    A retrospective analysis of risk factors of oromaxillofacial infection in patients presenting to a hospital emergency ward

    Maxillofac Plast Reconstr Surg

    (2019)
  • S.J. Thomas et al.

    Is there an epidemic of admissions for surgical treatment of dental abscesses in the UK?

    BMJ

    (2008)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.
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