Triage Data and Weather of Melbourne

Objectives: Currently there is lack of information on the scientific link between climatic changes and dental diseases. Linkage of climatic changes with medical conditions/diseases have been described extensively, and some information is available on associations with some dental diseases/conditions (e.g. pulpitis, temporomandibular joint pain/dislocation, tooth fracture). The aim of this study was to assess if there were any associations between the weather and the demand for emergency dental services, in the city of Melbourne Australia, over a five-year period.Methods: A data set with 130426 entries, over a 5.5-year period (January 2006 to August 2011) was analysed. Each entry reflected a patient demanding emergency dental treatment by phone from Royal Dental Hospital of Melbourne (RDHM). Patients were categorised into one of 5 categories, using a previously described telephone triage system. Each entry was correlated with weather data; include rainfall, temperature and solar irradiance.Results: Category 1 and 2 patients demanded treatment, irrespective of weather conditions.Saturdays and Sundays were the busiest days of a week in terms of emergency phone calls. Rainfall, moon phases and solar irradiance did not have any significant effects on patient demand, although some differences were observed but not significant.Conclusions: Although some weather effects on patient emergency service demand were noticed (in case of psychological effects on an individual), none of these were statistically significant, and there does not seem to be any associations between emergency dental service demand and various aspects of the weather.