"He was distraught, I was distraught.." Parents' experiences of accessing emergency care following an avulsion injury to their child

Objective To explore how parents access emergency care for their children following avulsion of a permanent tooth.

Method Semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with parents of children who had suffered a tooth avulsion injury in the previous two years. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Framework analysis was used to analyse the data and interpret the core concepts from the interviews.

Results Nine parents participated in the study. None of the children received the appropriate emergency dental care within the timeframe identified by national and international guidelines. The core themes that emerged following the analysis were knowledge, access and emotion.

Discussion & Conclusions The parents who were interviewed for this study had poor knowledge of what to do in the event of a tooth avulsion injury. This lack of knowledge directly impaired their ability to navigate emergency dental care for their child. They described their upset and distress following their child's injury, but also feelings of frustration and disappointment in relation to the emergency care their child received. There is a need to develop appropriate support and clinical pathways to enable parents to rapidly access appropriate and timely care for their child following a complex dental trauma.