Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urgent dental care delivery in a Swiss university center for dental medicine.
Clin Oral Investig
; 25(10): 5711-5721, 2021 Oct.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1130785
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVES:
This study aimed to assess whether the emergency service of a major Swiss dental institution faced different demands (patient volume, treatment needs, dental care characteristics) during a lockdown, issued to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic, compared with the weeks before and after. MATERIALS ANDMETHODS:
Data of patients receiving urgent care at a university center for dental medicine (Basel, Switzerland) during the 6-week lockdown, pre-lockdown, and post-lockdown periods were retrospectively evaluated. Statistical analysis involved tests for equal proportions and logistic regression models. The level of significance was set at α=0.05.RESULTS:
The study comprised 3109 dental emergency visits in the period from February 2 to June 5, 2020. Daily caseloads increased during lockdown. Abscesses, orthodontic emergencies, and surgical follow-ups were more common during lockdown, whereas the number of dento-alveolar injuries declined (≤0.048). Urgent dental care provision involved intraoral radiographs more frequently in the pre-lockdown period compared with the following weeks (p<0.001). Among all treatments, aerosol-generating procedures dropped from 56.1% (pre-lockdown) to 21.3% during lockdown (p<0.001), while teledentistry follow-ups became more frequent (p<0.001). Patients with comorbidities sought urgent dental care less frequently during the post-lockdown period (p=0.004).CONCLUSIONS:
The lockdown significantly impacted the dental emergency service in terms of patients' diagnoses, treatment needs, and the characteristics of the urgent care that was delivered. CLINICAL RELEVANCE Access to essential dental care must be monitored and safeguarded throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond as deferred care entails risks for serious sequelae and persons with comorbidities may change their dental care-seeking behavior.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Dental Care
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Long Covid
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Clin Oral Investig
Journal subject:
Dentistry
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S00784-021-03872-1
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