The effect of COVID-19 outbreak on hospital admissions for dental infections

Cervicofacial infections of dental origin can cause life threatening emergency and we were anticipating that the prevalence of hospital admissions for this reason between the 26 th of March 2020 until the 8 th of June 2020 that the dental practices were closed would increase. We conducted a retrospective analysis of the hospital admissions for cervicfacial infections of dental origin during this period and the results were compared with the admissions the same period last year. Surprisingly there were less admissions in 2020 compared to 2019 which can be attributed to the government guidance to ''Stay at home", "Save lives", "Protect the NHS'' and the treatment provided by the Urgent Dental Care Centers that reduced the pressure on the country's health care system. Proportionately more admissions in 2020 were attributed to dental abscess from mandibular teeth compared to 2019 but there was a small decrease in the incision and drainage under general anesthetic and a small increase in the length of the hospital stay in 2020.Copyright © 2021

The impact of COVID-19 on cervicofacial infection of dental aetiology.

Cervicofacial infections of dental aetiology can be life-threatening and with the closure of dental practices following the onset of the COVID-19, it would be anticipated that their prevalence presenting to maxillofacial surgery would increase and services may be overwhelmed, with patients presenting later with a potential subsequent increase in morbidity. A retrospective analysis of patients with cervicofacial infection of dental aetiology referred to maxillofacial surgery during the initial six weeks of COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 was carried out and compared with the equivalent period in the two preceding years. Unexpectedly, during COVID-19 lockdown, there was a reduction in patients seen with cervicofacial infection of dental aetiology. This may have resulted from patient adherence to government guidelines "Stay at home", successful triaging of patients in primary care and emergency treatment provided by urgent dental care centres. Proportionally more patients who presented to hospital had received prior antibiotic therapy and required in-patient admission. All patients admitted received incision and drainage, with an increase extraoral drainage and an associated reduction in length of stay. During COVID-19 lockdown, maxillofacial managed a reduced number of patients with cervicofacial infection, likely resulting from primary and secondary dental care working together. The rate of incision and drainage of patients not admitted increased under local anaesthesia with increase of extraoral drainage and reduced length of stay for those admitted.

Setting up and maximising the usage of an Urgent Dental Care Centre in Blackpool. Sharing our experiences.

An integrated Urgent Dental Care Centre with Tier 2 Oral Surgery support was set up in Blackpool starting 24th March 2020. This was in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first month 1433 patients had telephone consultations and 713 extractions were performed. The challenges surrounding set up and continuity of care are discussed.