Abstract
Background
The aim of the authors was to evaluate prescription patterns for bite-wing and panoramic
radiographs (PRs) for pediatric and adolescent dental patients after the implementation
of the most recent guidelines from the American Dental Association and US Food and
Drug Administration.
Methods
The authors accessed paid insurance claims data for all 50 states from January 1,
2013, through June 30, 2019, for patients 18 years and younger and extracted a 5{b8727dad3e87009fdf7522b8034efdb701cdc6055ba8d220b20c1758c4dd8d79}
random sample population. The authors performed statistical analyses to evaluate various
imaging metrics for pediatric dentists (PDs) and general practitioners (GPs).
Results
A total of 2,123,735 bite-wing images were ordered during 4,734,249 office visits.
The average (standard deviation [SD]) time interval between bite-wing examinations
ordered by GPs was 13.9 (7.4) months, and for PDs the average (SD) was 13.0 (6.7)
months (P < .0001). When divided by age group, 3.5{b8727dad3e87009fdf7522b8034efdb701cdc6055ba8d220b20c1758c4dd8d79} of all bite-wings were obtained from patients
aged 0 through 4 years. For PRs, the authors included 286,824 images in this study.
The average (SD) time interval between PRs ordered for the same patient was 3.4 (1.3)
years for PDs and 3.3 (1.4) years for GPs. One percent of all PRs were ordered for
patients aged 0 through 4 years, with 403 images attributed to PDs and 2,348 to GPs.
Conclusions
PDs were more likely to comply with the guidelines on radiograph prescriptions for
pediatric and adolescent patients than GPs.
Practical Implications
Inclusion of patient caries risk with insurance claims data could be considered for
more appropriate administration of dental radiography. Future guidelines should be
developed to include more explicit recommendations for prescribing PRs.
Key Words
Dental radiographs
pediatric dentistry
bite-wing
panoramic radiograph
guidelines
Abbreviation Key:
AAPD (American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry), ADA (American Dental Association), FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), GP (General practitioner), PD (Pediatric dentist), PR (Panoramic radiographs)
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Biography
Dr. Menaker is an MSD candidate, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis.
Biography
Dr. Yepes is a professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, IN.
Biography
Dr. Vinson is an associate professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, and the postgraduate residency program director, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, IN.
Biography
Dr. Jones is a Starkey Research Professor, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, Indiana University School of Dentistry, and a professor of clinical pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN.
Biography
Mr. Downey is the chief analytics officer, P&R Dental Strategies, Hamilton, NJ.
Biography
Ms. Tang is a biostatistician, Department of Biostatistics and Health Data Science, Indiana University School of Medicine and Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN.
Biography
Dr. Maupome is a professor and the associate dean of research, Richard M. Fairbanks School of Public Health, Indianapolis, IN.
Article Info
Publication History
Published online: October 12, 2021
Accepted:
July 1,
2021
Received in revised form:
June 8,
2021
Received:
April 1,
2021
Publication stage
In Press Corrected Proof
Footnotes
Disclosures. None of the authors reported any disclosures.
Financial support for this project was supplied by the graduate research committee at the Indiana University School of Dentistry.
Identification
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adaj.2021.07.001
Copyright
(C) 2021 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.
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