In a rather unfortunate turn of events for those who wish to eradicate the drunken Irish stereotype, statistics have shown that dentists win big on St. Patrick’s Day in the US, with thanks to those whose teeth take the brunt of their March 17 revelry.
Yes, the big winner of St. Patrick’s Day in America are the dentists, with a 77 percent leap in emergency visits in the few days immediately after the holiday. March 18, or the Monday straight after Paddy’s Day if it falls on the weekend, is in fact one of the ten busiest days of the dentist’s calendar year, with the spike continuing for two or three days.
Data collected countrywide by Sikka Software, which provides applications and tools to more than 10,000 dental practices across the country, shows that between 2008 and 2015, both men and women were forced to make emergency trips to their dentist on March 18, mainly because they were the unfortunate victims of a Paddy’s Day faceplant.
The rowdy behavior is not confined to male bravado either with just as many women meeting with dental disaster each year.
Between the ages of 30 and 65, women see a 77.4 percent increase in emergency dental visits while men in the same age bracket see a 78 percent increase.
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Speaking to CNBC, Dr. Page Barden, a dentist in Cumming, Georgia, agreed that he sees more emergency visits as a result of St. Patrick’s Day.
"Yes, dentists are very busy the day after we celebrate St. Patrick," he said, stating that those who become slightly more clumsy as the day wears on and fall over or those who find themselves more easily offended and in a fight are the most common.
There are also certain states that see a massive increase in emergency appointments, including Arkansas, West Virginia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Virginia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Kansas, and Louisiana. Delaware tops the list - the rowdy bunch - with a ridiculous 188 percent jump. Although Delaware’s Irish American population ranks high with fourth largest Irish population in the US, the other states rank low in terms of the percentage of the population who claim Irish heritage.
Only one state avoids the shame of saying they partied too hard in honor of St. Patrick, with Vermont being the only place not to see any kind of increase. This is despite Vermont having the sixth largest Irish population in the US.
Vijay Sikka, founder of Sikka Software, believes that there’s a pot of gold to be made now that the increase has been noticed.
"We can see dentists offering a St. Patrick's Day emergency appointments special," he said.
The new figures show a marked rise in the number of dental emergencies in the past few years, with statistics released in 2015 revealing a slightly lower but nonetheless appalling increase of 64 percent. The data was found by comparing the amount of emergency appointments in each state around Paddy’s Day with the number on an average day.
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