Effect of COVID-19 Pandemic on Clinic Attendance and Management of Dental Patients: Our Experience at Dental Hospital, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals’ Complex, Ile Ife, Nigeria

Abstract

Background: COVID-19 infection, declared pandemic by WHO in January 2020 constituted a public health problem due to the highly infectious nature of the disease and the subsequent lockdown imposed by the government to control the spread. Dental services delivery was severely affected. Methodology: This is a retrospective study. Subjects were consecutive patients who presented at the Dental Centre, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex from August 2019 to August 2020. Patients’ data was obtained from Oral Diagnosis Clinic records. Patients’ data obtained include sociodemographics, complaints, diagnosis and treatment given. Analysis was done using the STATA software package. Descriptive statistics was done using frequency and percentages while bivariate analysis was done using student test, p>0.05. Results: A total of 892 patients (524, 58.7% females and 368, 41.3% males) presented at the dental clinic during the study period. Their age was 41.6 (18.9) years and the majority of patients (882, 99.3%) presented on account of orofacial pain. Significant reduction of dental clinic attendance was found as 643 (72%) patients attended the clinic 6 months before pandemic and only about one third, 229 (28%) patients attended the clinic 6 months into the pandemic. Medications (72%), indirect pulp capping (73%) and oral health counseling were the frequently adopted treatment protocols. Root Canal Treatments (RCT) (1.2%) and surgical extractions were not frequent. Conclusion: Only about one-third attendance was recorded at start of Covid-19 pandemic in our centre. The management strategies at the critical times involved more of medications, indirect pulp capping and counseling