Remote telephone clinics in oral medicine: reflections on the place of virtual clinics in a specialty that relies so heavily on visual assessment. A note of caution.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, NHS services had to convert face-to-face consultations to remote consultations to facilitate the ongoing provision of healthcare. Many specialties including Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Rheumatology have found such virtual clinics effective and appreciated by both patients and clinicians. In Oral Medicine, whilst responses to virtual clinics have been positive, we have recognised that they are not sufficient. In this reflective piece, we describe our experiences and our approach to their use in the management of Oral Medicine and Behçet's disease patients, which has developed iteratively during the lockdown period. We also consider the role of virtual clinics in Oral Medicine in the post-COVID-19 era.

Adamantiades-Behcet's disease (Behcet's disease) and COVID-19

The immunopathogenesis of COVID-19 remains ill-defined. Through hyperstimulation of the immune system, SARS-CoV2 may cause a multi-facetted inflammatory disease and generate immune-mediated organ damage even leading to fatal consequences. However, it is still unclear, if a modified course of COVID-19 occurs in patients with autoimmune and/or autoinflammatory diseases.