The impact of the COVID-19 epidemic on the utilization of emergency dental services

To assess how the current COVID-19 epidemic influenced peoples' utilization of emergency dental services in Beijing, China. The first-visit patients seeking emergency dental services before or at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic were retrieved. Their demographic characteristics and the re...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of dental sciences 2020-12, Vol.15 (4), p.564-567
Main Authors: Guo, Huaqiu, Zhou, Yin, Liu, Xiaoqiang, Tan, Jianguo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Dental care
Emergencies
Epidemics
Short Communication
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Summary:To assess how the current COVID-19 epidemic influenced peoples' utilization of emergency dental services in Beijing, China. The first-visit patients seeking emergency dental services before or at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic were retrieved. Their demographic characteristics and the reasons for visiting were recorded and analyzed. There were 2,537 patients involved in this study. Thirty-eight percent fewer patients visited the dental urgency at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic than before. The distribution of dental problems has changed significantly. The proportion of dental and oral infection raised from 51.0% of pre-COVID-19 to 71.9% during COVID-19, and dental trauma decreased from 14.2% to 10.5%. Meanwhile, the non-urgency cases reduced to three-tenths of pre-COVID-19. Within the limitation of this study, the COVID-19 epidemic had a strong influence on the utilization of emergency dental services.
ISSN:1991-7902
2213-8862
DOI:10.1016/j.jds.2020.02.002