Features of the organization of dental care in besieged Leningrad

Abstract

Not much information is available about the provision of dental care during the Great Patriotic War, and publications concerning dental care in besieged Leningrad are even limited. All dental care during the war in the country was mainly aimed at treating wounds on the face. On the home front, dental care was provided to workers and employees working in the defense industry. Therefore, medical and sanitary units were created at large defense enterprises, which included closed hospitals, polyclinics, and outpatient clinics. Three frontline evacuation hospitals were located in the clinics of the Military Medical Academy, where the doctors and entire medical staff of the academy worked. The chief dentist of the Red Army, David Abramovich Entin, and the chief dentist of the navy, Vladimir Mikhailovich Uvarov were primarily responsible for the organization of dental care and specialized assistance to servicemen with maxillofacial wounds. The hospitals were formed based on the clinics of the 1st Leningrad Medical Institute, including clinics for maxillofacial surgery. At the 2nd Leningrad Medical Institute during the blockade, extremely urgent problems related to combating scurvy developed. The Central State Institute of Traumatology named after Professor R.R. Vreden, where A.A. Limberg and his colleagues worked, occupied an important place in the provision of surgical and orthopedic care in besieged Leningrad. Dental care in besieged Leningrad was provided as part of medical and preventive institutions. As of November 1, 1942, dental outpatient clinics of Vasileostrovsky, Volodarsky, Kuibyshevsky, and Petrogradsky districts were successfully functioning. After the end of the siege in 1944, active work began on the restoration of the city. During the reconstruction of the city, the number of new medical institutions has also increased. In the autumn of 1944, the construction of the second clinical base of the State Institute for Further Training of Physicians was completed, in which the clinic of reconstructive maxillofacial surgery was located. The problem of the health of people who survived the blockade of Lenin remains relevant today, many decades later. Numerous publications have been devoted to generalizing the experience of treating wounded with maxillofacial injuries in combat conditions.