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

Elias Walter, Leonard von Bronk, Reinhard Hickel and Karin Christine Huth
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Elias Walter: Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital, LMU, 80336 Munich, Germany
Leonard von Bronk: Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital, LMU, 80336 Munich, Germany
Reinhard Hickel: Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital, LMU, 80336 Munich, Germany
Karin Christine Huth: Department of Conservative Dentistry and Periodontology, University Hospital, LMU, 80336 Munich, Germany

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 15, 1-12

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.

Keywords: COVID-19; urgent dental care; lockdown; pandemic (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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