COVID-19 pandemic: the first wave - an audit and guidance for paediatric dentistry

Abstract

With the use of newly issued guidelines, King's College Hospital has developed new standard operating procedures specifically for the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the unprecedented nature of the current global pandemic, this paper highlights how paediatric dental emergencies can be managed safely and efficiently, as well as new measures which can help reduce transmission of the virus. Furthermore, an audit of the current paediatric dental emergencies attending the hospital is presented. Seventy-six percent of patients attending met the agreed local criteria for urgent treatment, with the most common presentation being irreversible pulpitis. This highlights the types of cases that practitioners enrolled in urgent dental care centres (UDCs) can expect to encounter and how to effectively manage this challenging group of patients.