Urgent dental care on a national level during the COVID-19 epidemic

Abstract

Objective: This paper aims to report and discuss the organization and statistics of dental care during the COVID-19 epidemics on the national level in Slovenia, providing helpful information to health policy planners worldwide. Material and methods: During an eight-week lockdown, Emergency Dental Centers (EDCs) were established and coordinated on the national level to treat patients' urgent dental conditions. Telemedicine was used on the first level of triage to reduce contacts between healthcare workers and patients. Weekly coordination between EDCs was supported by real-time data acquisition on the number of patient visits, prescribed medicine, the number and type of dental procedures, and the usage of personal protective equipment (PPE). Results: In EDCs, 27,468 patients were serviced, on average 235 patients per day/million people. The care was provided by 4798 man days of dental health care workers. Except for the first week, treatment and triage visits showed a slight increase. The number of incisions was nearly constant, while the number of extractions increased. A nearly threefold increase was found for emergency endodontic treatments (EET). The number of antibiotic prescriptions demonstrated an increasing trend. Analgesic prescriptions showed a decreasing trend from the beginning of lockdown. Conclusions: The reorganization and centralization of dental care proved to be an efficient model in Slovenia for the provision of urgent dental care, and the management of the healthcare workforce and PPE. Data from this study may provide helpful information for planning the needs and corresponding resources for the next waves of epidemics of COVID-19.