{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,20]],"date-time":"2026-04-20T18:31:50Z","timestamp":1776709910504,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,6]],"date-time":"2024-06-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1717632000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Dentistry Journal"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The aim of this clinical audit is to evaluate the characteristics of dental infections requiring hospitalisations, which may help improve preventative and management policies. This study retrospectively evaluated the records of patients admitted to the Nepean hospital, Kingswood, New South Wales, Australia, due to dental infections between 2018 and 2019. A total of 102 patients, mostly in their thirties with equal gender distribution, were admitted with dental infections, presenting with pain (100%), swelling (99%), trismus (40.2%), dysphagia (27.4%), fever (21%) [&gt;37 \u00b0C], tachycardia (24.8%) and tachypnoea (9.3%). Most patients (68%) presented on weekends, outside regular working hours, and public holidays. A total of 52.5% of patients had taken prior antibiotics. Dental caries, smoking, mental health issues, and illicit drug use were featured strongly. The majority of patients (56.4%) underwent treatment under local anaesthesia. The total length of hospital stay was 271 days (mean 2.7, SD 1.6). Augmentin was the most prescribed antibiotic. Complications were reported in 8.8% of the patients, primarily due to airway compromise. Dental infections leading to hospitalisations continue to be a burden on the healthcare system. A notable finding was that the presentations were primarily on weekends, outside regular working hours, and public holidays, and the majority required dental interventions under local anaesthesia. The provision of on-call emergency dental services may reduce potentially preventable hospitalisations and the length of hospital stay.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/dj12060173","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,6]],"date-time":"2024-06-06T06:40:26Z","timestamp":1717656026000},"page":"173","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Hospitalisations Due to Dental Infection: A Retrospective Clinical Audit from an Australian Public Hospital"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Mafaz","family":"Ullah","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Oral Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2750, Australia"},{"name":"Nepean Centre for Oral Health, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia"},{"name":"Khyber College of Dentistry, Peshawar 25000, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9910-2159","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad","family":"Irshad","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Specialised Dental Center, Ministry of Health, Sakaka Aljouf 72345, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Albert","family":"Yaacoub","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Oral Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2750, Australia"},{"name":"Nepean Centre for Oral Health, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia"},{"name":"School of Nursing and Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-7903-0671","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Eric","family":"Carter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Oral Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2750, Australia"},{"name":"Nepean Centre for Oral Health, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4999-0044","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stephen","family":"Cox","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Discipline of Oral Surgery, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW 2750, Australia"},{"name":"Nepean Centre for Oral Health, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Kingswood, NSW 2747, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,6,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ogle, O.E., and Halpern, L.R. 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