Cambios en el perfil de las urgencias atendidas por un dentista de guardia 24 horas durante las etapas iniciales de la primera ola de COVID-19

Resumo

Aim: To compare urgent dental care provided by a general dentist 24-hours on-call at two early stages of the fi rst wave of Covid-19 pandemic in Madrid (Spain): during the lockdown of the population and closure of most dental clinics, and once the lockdown was relaxed and dental offi ces partially reopened. Method: In both groups we compared demographic data, time elapsed from onset of symptoms, rate of late-night appointments, proportion of patients receiving pharmacologic treatment and frequencies of the pathologies causing the consultation and treatments performed. Results: In the fi rst and second stages -45 and 19 days respectively- 187 and 94 patients, (4.15 and 4.8 patients/day, respectively) were seen. The time elapsed from onset of symptoms was 10+/1 days in the fi rst group and 3+/-1 days in the second, while 80% and 30% of patients were receiving some medical treatment respectively. Pulpal infl ammation predominated in the first stage (p = 0.001) and irreversible pulpitis in the second (p < 0.05). Extractions were more frequent in the first stage (58.7% vs 41.5%, p < 0.05), and root canal therapy (8.5% vs 2.1%, p < 0.05) and pharmacological treatment (19.1% vs 9.6%, p < 0.05) in the second. Conclusion: During the second stage of the fi rst wave of COVID-19 pandemic, once lockdown was partially relaxed, significant differences were observed in urgent dental care compared with the first six weeks of the pandemic, both in the profile of the pathology and the treatments provided, which were more conservative.