Provision of dental services at a single institution in the UK's epicentre during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Access to urgent dental care was limited in the earlier phase of the UK's COVID-19 lockdown and cessation of dental practice limited face-to-face consultations Remote triage with the use of advice, analgesia and antimicrobials provides limited relief for patients with diagnoses of necrotic pulp nature.Personal protective equipment categorised based upon the intervention being delivered allowed for continual delivery of urgent dental services.

Impact of COVID-19 on Dental Emergency Services in Cluj-Napoca Metropolitan Area: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Acute apical periodontitis (42.3%), acute pulpitis (33.3%), and cellulitis/abscess (9.3%) were the most frequent diagnosis during the State of Emergency in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, but were also the most common diagnostics in 2019, as indicated by other researchers [ 25 , 26 , 27 ]. Pulpitis and apical periodontitis were also the most frequent diagnosis of the patients from other two studies performed on UK patients presenting to an emergency center [ 28 , 29 ] and one study regarding solely endodontic emergencies of patients in Texas [ 30 ]. However, in Brazil, the most common reasons the patients made an appointment to the emergency service were dental pain, trauma, and broken restorations [ 31 ].…”

Changes in the characteristics of dental emergencies under the influence of SARS-CoV-2 ： A retrospective study

“…By comparing the disease composition of oral emergency patients before and during the SARS-COV-2,Acute Pulpitis (K04.0),the Acute Apical Titis (K04.4),Acute Gingivitis (K05.0),the Acute oronitis(K05.2), Open Wound of lip and Oral cavity(S01.5) were all over 70% of the main types of dental emergency diseases,This result is basically consistent with Jingjing qiu and Jingjing's results against the Characteristics of Endodontic Emergencies during SARS-COV-2 [22].The main complaint was toothache,with its own characteristic nature of the pain,its location and duration.During the SARS-COV-2,admittance of patients with dental and trauma to the dental emergency center declined,but acute Pulpitis (K04.0) and acute apical periodontitis (K04.4) accounted for a signi cant increase.It may well be that during the outbreak,home quarantine and epidemic prevention measures let people stay at home more,thereby reducing the risk and occurrence of injury [20,23,24].The increase in the proportion of acute pulpitis has been related to the dietary habits of patients during the SARS-COV-2.In addition,there was a signi cant increase in the proportion of non-emergency cases during the SARS-COV-2,such as prosthesis, aesthetic,recall or maintenance,which resulted in rapid disease progression and unbearable pain in patients due to their inability to return to their scheduled treatments and ultimately seeking emergency treatment.This may be due to the closure of dental medical facilities during the SARS-COV-2,with patients unable to adhere to their scheduled follow-up treatments [25].…”

Evaluation of a dental nurse-led triage system in a private dental practice during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…This service evaluation during the COVID-19 pandemic offers a practice-based perspective from those already published in a hospitalbased acute care service 17 and an urgent dental care centre. 7 The practice was in an agile position to respond to this unprecedented situation to move away from face-to-face dental care and remote working because of the IT and communications systems already in place, such as the ability to divert phone lines and a cloud-based clinical dental records system.…”

“…Grossman et al 17 highlight the importance of managing conditions such as mild to moderate orofacial pain during the pandemic as urgent, rather than routine, due to the restrictions in accessing services. Interestingly, when the patients who had complained of pain could be offered an appointment in practice, approximately half of them declined this.…”