Changes in the Spectrum of Dental Emergencies Under the Influence of SARS-COV-2

Abstract BackgroundTo master the distribution and changing characteristics of dental diseases is of great significance for the dental emergency center in order to strengthen the treatment abilities of medical staff and the effective use of emergency resources in the face of public health emergencies of highly infectious respiratory diseases.MethodsThe medical records of 4260 cases of dental emergency patients from December 2019 to March 2020 were retrospectively analyzed, with patients being divided into the pre- Corona Virus Disease 2019 (SARS-COV-2) group and the during SARS-COV-2 group according to the date of their admittance to the dental emergency department. The patient demographics, occurrence of dental emergencies and treatment approaches were compared before and during the pandemic.ResultsDuring the pandemic period, the number of dental emergency visits increased by 25.56% compared with those before the pandemic. From the view of demographic, the proportion of patients aged 0 –17 years decreased by 10.6%, while the proportion of patients aged 46 – 65 years increased by 6.9%. The emergency patient amount reduced during the week and increased at the weekend, the distribution of the peak time of patient visits was 13:00 – 18:00, and the emergency patient amount at night decreased obviously compared with that before the outbreak of the epidemic.A major change is acute pulpitis/root periarthritis ratio increased by 9.2%, fell 17.9%, before the outbreak on dental and maxillofacial trauma stitch, the residual roots and residual crowns and other non-emergency diseases increased by 3.2%. Among the treatment methods, dental local drug irrigation, dental local hemostasis, and local treatment of pericoronitis were the main treatment approaches, accounting for 63.1% of the total cases. The use of local anesthesia decreased and the use of painkillers increased during the SARS-COV-2 pandemic.ConclusionSARS-COV-2 led to changes in the spectrum of dental emergency cases. The dental emergency department should optimize the treatment procedures, optimize the staffing and reasonably allocate materials according to the changes, to improve the on-site treatment capacity and provide adequate dental emergency care.