Dental: tooth extractions (under 11)

  • NICE indicator
  • IND295
  • Published:
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Indicator

Tooth extractions due to decay for children admitted as inpatients to hospital, aged 10 years and under.

Indicator type

Network / system level indicator. The indicator would be appropriate to understand and report on the performance of networks or systems of providers.

This document does not represent formal NICE guidance. For a full list of NICE indicators, see our menu of indicators.

To find out how to use indicators and how we develop them, see our NICE indicator process guide.

Rationale

This indicator measures the rate of the number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) where a tooth extraction was performed on a child aged 10 years or under at the start of the episode of care, due to tooth decay, per 100,000 resident population. It focuses on those who have most likely been missed in primary care dentistry as the tooth decay is severe enough that they need hospital treatment; therefore, it is likely that they have not regularly attended the dentist. The treatment occurring in secondary care implies the children are having their teeth extracted under general anaesthetic and means that decay in the tooth has reached an extreme level. The indicator aligns with NICE's guidelines on oral health: local authorities and partners, (recommendations 2, 8, 14 to 16, 18 and 21) and oral health promotion: general dental practice, and with NICE's quality standard on oral health promotion in the community.

Specification

Numerator: The number of finished consultant episodes for tooth extraction where the primary diagnosis is dental caries and the patient is aged 10 years or under.

Denominator: Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates.

Calculation: Crude rate per 100,000.

Definitions: Dental caries: ICD‑10 codes K021, K025, K028, K029, K040, K045, K046 or K047.

Exclusions: None.

Data source: numerator: Hospital Episode Statistics – Admitted Patient Care; denominator: mid-year population estimates published by the ONS.

Expected population size: ONS 2024 analysis of population estimates tool for UK (single year of age: for age 0 to 10 [all] and all ages [all]), show that for 2023, 12.3% (7,109,573 divided by 57,690,323) were children aged 10 and under in England: 1,232 per 10,000 patients served by a network. There is no minimum number of patients required for network level indicators. However, consideration should be given to whether the majority of results would require suppression because of small numbers.

ISBN: 978-1-4731-6878-7