Hospital-based emergency department visits with herpetic gingivostomatitis in the United States.
OBJECTIVE
The objectives of this study were to determine the number of hospital emergency department (ED) visits with a diagnosis of herpetic gingivostomatitis (HGS) for 2007 in the United States and to identify the possible comorbid conditions associated with HGS.


METHODS
The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample for 2007 was used in this study. Patients who visited the ED with a diagnosis of HGS were selected. Estimates were projected to the national levels using the discharge weights. Presence of comorbid conditions in these patients was also analyzed.


RESULTS
A total of 23,124 patients had ED visits and received the diagnosis of HGS. Most of the patients were young females and those belonging to the lower socioeconomic strata. All patients with HGS also presented with comorbid conditions.


CONCLUSIONS
Physicians should be trained to diagnose, manage, and refer common dental emergencies. In the long term, improving access to dental care for these patients is crucial to managing this problem.
Department of Periodontics, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52241, USA. satheesh-elangovan@uiowa.edu
Satheesh
S
Elangovan
Nadeem Y
NY
Karimbux
Sreedevi
S
Srinivasan
Shankar R
SR
Venugopalan
Sridhar V K
SV
Eswaran
Veerasathpurush
V
Allareddy
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D018259:Herpesvirus 1, Human; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class; D013283:Stomatitis, Herpetic / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy* / Q000821:virology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult