Hospitalisation for the surgical removal of impacted teeth: Has Australia followed international trends?

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to undertake a six-year analysis from 1999/00 to 2004/05, of the demographic characteristics of hospitalisations for the surgical removal of impacted teeth in Western Australia under general anaesthesia. METHOD Data for the current analysis was obtained from the Western Australian Hospital Morbidity Data System (HMDS). Gender, age, indigenous status, place of residence, type of hospital admitted, insurance status, and Diagnostic Related Group (DRG) cost estimates for the procedure were analysed. RESULTS A total of 37.6% of all oral health-related hospitalisations in Western Australia over the six years were for the removal of impacted teeth. Admitted patients were predominantly females (58.8%) and very few Indigenous people were hospitalised (0.2%). The average age of patients was 21.4 years (sd=9.9). Metropolitan patients were hospitalised 1.5 times more than rural patients for this condition. The majority of patients were hospitalised at a private metropolitan hospital and were insured. The total cost of hospitalisation for this condition contributes to 27% of all the oral health condition-related hospitalisation costs. CONCLUSION This study suggests that the hospital-based removal of impacted teeth in Western Australia is associated with factors such as indigenous status, age, gender and private hospital access along with insurance status raising interesting questions over the equity of provision of this service.