Influence of COVID-19 pandemic on paediatric dental attendance

Abstract

Objectives This retrospective study aimed to evaluate the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on dental attendance and emergency/ non-emergency visits of children during the outbreak, compared to the same period of 2019. Materials and methods Patients who visited the paediatric department clinic during the observed period were included in this study. The patient's demographic data, purpose of visit, and treatment type were evaluated retrospectively from patient examination records. The Pearson chi-square and t-tests were used for comprehensive statistical analysis. Results A total of 1454 patient files (1184/270 cases from non-pandemic/pandemic period) were assessed. A significant reduction was found in aggregated emergency/non-emergency visits during the pandemic period (p < 0.01). During the pandemic, average daily visits for emergency dental care were observed to have a decrease to half of the non-pandemic period. Nonemergency routine dental visits have also exhibited a drastic decline. Severe dental pain due to pulpal inflammation and abscess/ swelling were the most frequently reported urgent dental complaints that patients applied to the paediatric dental clinic during the pandemic period. Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic has a significant influence on patients' attendance to paediatric dental clinic. Therefore, concerning a potential post-pandemic increase in treatment demand, meticulous future planning and proper regulation of dental care should be provided for better oral health and children's quality of life. Clinical relevance This study's importance is the observation of dramatically reduced number of patient visits during the pandemic period which may yield increased number of oral health-related complications in the long run.

Pediatric Dental Emergency Pattern and Dental Care Provided during COVID-19 Pandemic Lockdown at a Tertiary Care Center in Kathmandu, Nepal

“…Karacin C et al 19 has reported 31.1% patients approaching pediatric dentist due to pain as in our study. A study by Ustun N et al 12 showed that most of the children exhibited dental pain from pulpal inflammation, abscess and swelling in this pandemic. In a study by Fux-Noy A et al 20 it was seen that most of the pediatric patients arrived with emergency such as dental pain, swelling, or dental trauma during the lockdown.…”

“…Study by Humagain M et al 11 showed that only 10% of the Nepalese dentists were doing dental treatments especially emergency and urgent cases during the lockdown. Ustun N et al 12 observed that there was a decrease in pediatric dental attendance by half during the pandemic period. Similar to our findings, Guo H et al 13 and Tobias G et al 14 also reported decrease in the number of patients visiting the dental emergency clinic in Beijing and Israel respectively.…”

Clinical Experience, Knowledge, Attitudes and Practice of Turkish Pediatric Dentists during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Furthermore, in our study, the most common emergency situations were reported as severe pain caused by pulpal inflammation (94%), abscesses or bacterial infection causing localized pain and extraoral swelling (86.5%), luxations/dental avulsions (41%), dental fractures causing pain, or soft tissue injuries caused by trauma (35.5%). Ilyas et al [61] reported irreversible pulpitis, Moheb et al [13] reported severe pain, infection and trauma, Üstün et al [62] reported severe dental pain because of pulpal inflammation and swelling, Faccini et al [58] reported toothache (71.4%), broken restorations (40.4%) and dental trauma (37.3%), Alsaleh et al [14] reported abscesses (51.8%) and cellulitis (44.6%) in Jordan and abscesses (44.6%) and pulpitis (35.5%) in India, Izzetti et al [16] reported pulpitis, prosthesis de-cementation and abscesses, and Sinjari et al [55] reported severe dental pain, swelling and dental trauma as the most common emergency situations managed. Thus, the findings of this study were found to be in accordance with those others [13,14,16,55,58,61,62].…”

“…Ilyas et al [61] reported irreversible pulpitis, Moheb et al [13] reported severe pain, infection and trauma, Üstün et al [62] reported severe dental pain because of pulpal inflammation and swelling, Faccini et al [58] reported toothache (71.4%), broken restorations (40.4%) and dental trauma (37.3%), Alsaleh et al [14] reported abscesses (51.8%) and cellulitis (44.6%) in Jordan and abscesses (44.6%) and pulpitis (35.5%) in India, Izzetti et al [16] reported pulpitis, prosthesis de-cementation and abscesses, and Sinjari et al [55] reported severe dental pain, swelling and dental trauma as the most common emergency situations managed. Thus, the findings of this study were found to be in accordance with those others [13,14,16,55,58,61,62]. However, differently from our findings, Limbu et al [63] reported exfoliating mobility (23.3%), acute pulpitis (5.8%) and dental abscesses (22.1%), and Martinho and Griffin [18] reported trauma (82.1%) followed by swelling (81.9%) and pain (76.1%) as dental emergencies.…”

Covıd-19 Pandemisinin Toplum Ağız Diş Sağlığına Etkileri ve Etik Sorunlar

“…Ülkemizde, Üstün ve ark. tarafından yapılan bir çalışmada, acil olmayan rutin diş hekimliği hizmetleri kapsamında özellikle koruyucu diş hekimliği uygulamalarında (fissür örtücü, flor tedavisi) ciddi oranda düşme olduğu, diş kliniğine başvuru nedeni olarak acil diş hekimliği şikayetlerinin ön plana çıktığı görülmektedir (21). Pulpitise bağlı diş ağrısı, apse ve şişlik en sık bildirilen acil diş hekimliği şikâyetler arasında yer almaktadır.…”