Data quality and disclosure control for hospital-based tooth extraction data
Updated 8 February 2024
Applies to England
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Data quality
No assumptions can be made about the method of anaesthesia provided for these procedures, but it is likely that the majority of episodes involved general anaesthetic. It is possible that different clinical coding protocols are applied in some sites and this could explain some of the variation in different geographical areas.
In some instances, the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data may underestimate the number of admissions for tooth extraction. It is recognised that there are tooth extractions conducted by community dental services in hospital settings, and that this data is not always included in HES.
The HES admitted patient care data set is published annually and has been designated as National Statistics. The data therefore complies with the Code of Practice for Statistics and is considered to be good quality. The finalised annual HES data is used for this analysis. NHS Digital is responsible for the quality of HES data and has produced its own data quality statement as well as describing the stages involved in the HES processing cycle.
Mid-year population estimates are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). These population estimates are based on census returns and are defined as those people who are “usually resident” in the UK for 12 months. The ONS has produced a comprehensive quality and methodology report on how these mid-year estimates are produced.
Disclosure control
New disclosure control guidance has been published by NHS Digital for HES episode counts.
All episode counts between 0 and 7 are now suppressed. The reason why zeros are suppressed is because there may well be activity occurring, but if, for example, a community dental provider is carrying out the tooth extraction in an acute hospital setting but it is not being recorded on the acute hospital system, then the extraction activity will not be counted.
For sub-national geographies, counts are rounded to the nearest 5. Total counts for England are unrounded. Secondary suppression is no longer necessary using these updated disclosure control rules.