Hospital Dental Treatment for Special Health Care Needs Patients in Minas Gerais state, Brazil: A Cluster Analysis

Objective: To describe and group some demographic and healthcare characteristics of hospital dental care for the special health care needs population. Material and Methods: Cross-sectional census survey with a total of 1,063 visits with special health care need patients under general anesthesia or sedation at the Brazilian Health System Minas Gerais, Brazil, over 12 months. Clinical diagnosis was divided into “mental and behavioral disorders and diseases of the nervous system” and “others”. Age group, gender, clinical diagnosis and care by a general dentist were submitted to descriptive and multivariate cluster analysis. The analysis was performed using the software SPSS version 19.0. Results: Cluster 1 (N=173) had no ICD codes for nervous system (NS) diseases and mental and behavioral disorders. Clusters 2 (N=564) and 3 (N=326) are quite similar except for gender distribution. Cluster 1 was 3.5 times more frequent among non-host cities than HER host cities. Dental treatment was mostly performed on males diagnosed with mental and behavioral disorders and diseases of the NS who were over the age of 25 years and were seen by general dentists. The clusters were distributed unevenly between EHR host and non-host cities. Conclusion: Non-host performed more frequently treatment for patients with no mental and behavioral disorders and diseases of the NS than EHR host cities.