Impact of COVID-19 on Dental Care during a National Lockdown: A Retrospective Observational Study.

Elias Walter,Reinhard Hickel,Leonard Von Bronk,Karin Christine Huth

doi:10.3390/ijerph18157963

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) has challenged dental health professions. This study analyzes its impact on urgent dental care in the Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital Munich and Bavaria, Germany. Patient numbers without and with positive/suspected COVID-19 infection, their reasons for attendance, and treatments were retrospectively recorded (February–July 2020) and linked to local COVID-19 infection numbers, control measures, and numbers/reasons for closures of private dental practices in Bavaria, Germany. Patient numbers decreased within the urgent care unit and the private dental practices followed by a complete recovery by the end of July. While non-emergency visits dropped to almost zero during the first lockdown, pain-related treatments were administered invariably also in patients with positive/suspected COVID-19 infections. Reasons for practice closures were lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), lack of employees, staff’s increased health risks, and infected staff, which accounted for 0.72% (3.6% closures in total). Pain-driven urgent dental care remains a constant necessity even in times of high infection risk, and measures established at the beginning of the pandemic seem to have provided a safe environment for patients as well as oral health care providers. PPE storage is important to ensure patients’ treatment under high-risk conditions, and its storage and provision by regulatory units might guarantee a stable and safe oral health care system in the future.

Highlights

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) have increased in the last century due to socioeconomic factors such as population density and global traffic [1]
On 18 March, elective treatments were suspended by governmental order, while urgent dental care was maintained [13]
COVID-19 cases increased exponentially in Munich, and the number of positive/suspected COVID-19 patients raised to a maximum of 5 patients with an average of 3.74 ± 1.67 per week for 6 weeks (Figure 2A)

Summary

Introduction

Emerging infectious diseases (EID) have increased in the last century due to socioeconomic factors such as population density and global traffic [1]. One of those pathogens, a novel coronavirus causing the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) [2], emerged at the end of the year 2019 in Wuhan, China. 19 (COVID-19) developed quickly toward a global pandemic and health crisis. After a year, it is still ongoing, with over 300,000 reported cases per day worldwide and over. Similar to many other nations, the number of infections was reduced by, so far, two national lockdowns, which were accompanied by recommendations to suspend elective medical/dental care [5,6]

Methods

Results

Conclusion