The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Outbreak on the Polish Dental Community’s Standards of Care—A Six-Month Retrospective Survey-Based Study

Bartosz Dalewski, Lukasz Palka, Paweł Kiczmer and Ewa Sobolewska
Additional contact information
Bartosz Dalewski: Chair and Department of Dental Prosthetics, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-111 Szczecin, Poland
Lukasz Palka: Private Dental Practice, 68-200 Żary, Poland
Paweł Kiczmer: Department and Chair of Pathomorphology, Faculty of Medical Sciences in Zabrze, Medical University of Silesia, 40-752 Katowice, Poland
Ewa Sobolewska: Chair and Department of Dental Prosthetics, Pomeranian Medical University, 70-111 Szczecin, Poland

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: Currently, SARS-CoV-2 is the primary pathogen worldwide, disrupting most of our everyday activities. The study aim was to evaluate its impact on the Polish dental community, standards of care, health, and welfare. Methods: A Google Forms survey was conducted among 303 dental practitioners. Results: Of respondents, 54.93% curbed the number of patients in the last six months, 34.21% declared no changes, and 10.86% reported an increase; whereas 70.7% of the respondents reported a treatment price increase within the same period (27.96% and 1.32% reported no changes and a decrease, respectively). Of the respondents, 15.5% did not close their businesses during the first wave of the pandemic. Most declared 1 or 2 month break, 30.7% and 34.7%, respectively. Some reported 3, 4, or 5 month breaks (15.84%, 1.32%, and 0.99%, respectively), and only two respondents (0.66%) did not admit patients at all. Headache episodes were more frequent among female dentists before the pandemic; after the pandemic, headache frequency increased among both sexes. Temporomandibular disorders (TMDs) were more frequent among women ( p = 0.017). Conclusions: Most Polish dentists followed SARS-CoV-2 recommendations and restricted their practices to admitting only patients with pain or incomplete treatment. Decreased sleep parameters, head, back, and neck pain, were observed. This situation may affect dental health conditions in Polish society over time.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; epidemiology; delivery of health care; dental care; community dentistry; Poland; infection transmission; dentist–patient (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 (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1281/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/3/1281/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:3:p:1281-:d:490594

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().