Currie C C, Stone S J, Brocklehurst P, Slade G, Durham J, Pearce M S. Dental attendances to general medical practitioners in Wales: a 44-year analysis. J Dent Res 2021; doi: 10.1177/00220345211044108. Online ahead of print.

Patients' reliance on medical care for dental problems was influenced by social deprivation and health policy.

One-third of the UK population is composed of problem-oriented dental attenders, seeking dental care only when they have acute dental pain or problems. Patients seek urgent dental care from a range of health care professionals, including general medical practitioners. This study identified trends in dental attendance at Welsh medical practices over a 44-year period. Over the period, there were 439,361 dental Read codes, accounting for 288,147 patient attendances. The overall attendance rate was 2.6 attendances per 1,000 patient-years. The attendance rate was negligible through 1987 but increased sharply to 5 per 1,000 patient-years in 2006 before almost halving to 2.6 per 1,000 in 2017 to a pattern that coincided with changes to National Health Service policies. Overall, 26,312 patients were repeat attenders and were associated with living in an area classified as urban and deprived or rural. Repeat attendance was associated with greater odds of having received an antibiotic prescription but lower odds of having been referred to another service. Future interventions to discourage dental attendance at medical practitioners should be targeted at those in the most deprived urban areas or rural areas. Health policy may influence attendance rates and should be considered in the future when changes are made.