IADR Abstract Archives
To Describe and Evaluate the Management of the Emergency Dental Needs of a Population During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Objectives: To investigate, describe and evaluate the requirements of a cohort of patients accessing emergency dental services and to understand how these patients were managed and the costing involved in Cork University Dental School and Hospital during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Methods: A retrospective review of an anonymised data set was assessed including all patients who contacted the CUDSH between 18th March and the 10th July 2020. Demographic and clinical data was collated and analysed using SPSS. Costs were provided by CUDSH and a cost analysis was performed to economically evaluate the emergency dental service during the pandemic. This included the costing differences between providing telemedicine and clinic appointments and to evaluate the costing involved in providing PPE.
Results: Patients seeking emergency dental services were mostly between the age of 31-40 years of age, lived within 36minutes of CUDSH and did not possess a medical card. Most of the patients (68%) had not been a patient of CUDSH prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Almost a third of patients had contacted the emergency dental service in pain, followed restorative issues or orthodontic issues. Almost 82% of patients were agreeable to a video consultation via a telemedicine platform.
Over 45% of patients were appointed to a clinic while the remaining were managed remotely or referred either to HSE services, orthodontic services or to the maxillo-facial surgical team.
The full economic costing of running an emergency session increased from €1849.28 pre COVID-19 to over €2446 for providing AGPs during the session based on an average decrease in patient number from 12 pre COVID-19 to just 7 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic benefit of using a telemedicine platform was also highlighted as the cost of seeing a patient in the emergency dental clinic for examination, prescription and advise but no treatment would be 340€ per patient while if this was completed via a telemedicine consultation this cost would be significantly lower at €56.
Conclusions: The CUDSH provided an essential service for the surrounding population during the COVID-19 pandemic. With new data emerging daily and lots of uncertainty surrounding the virus, CUDSH provided a safe and efficient dental service for those who had a dental emergency during the government restrictions.
Methods: A retrospective review of an anonymised data set was assessed including all patients who contacted the CUDSH between 18th March and the 10th July 2020. Demographic and clinical data was collated and analysed using SPSS. Costs were provided by CUDSH and a cost analysis was performed to economically evaluate the emergency dental service during the pandemic. This included the costing differences between providing telemedicine and clinic appointments and to evaluate the costing involved in providing PPE.
Results: Patients seeking emergency dental services were mostly between the age of 31-40 years of age, lived within 36minutes of CUDSH and did not possess a medical card. Most of the patients (68%) had not been a patient of CUDSH prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.Almost a third of patients had contacted the emergency dental service in pain, followed restorative issues or orthodontic issues. Almost 82% of patients were agreeable to a video consultation via a telemedicine platform.
Over 45% of patients were appointed to a clinic while the remaining were managed remotely or referred either to HSE services, orthodontic services or to the maxillo-facial surgical team.
The full economic costing of running an emergency session increased from €1849.28 pre COVID-19 to over €2446 for providing AGPs during the session based on an average decrease in patient number from 12 pre COVID-19 to just 7 during the COVID-19 pandemic. The economic benefit of using a telemedicine platform was also highlighted as the cost of seeing a patient in the emergency dental clinic for examination, prescription and advise but no treatment would be 340€ per patient while if this was completed via a telemedicine consultation this cost would be significantly lower at €56.
Conclusions: The CUDSH provided an essential service for the surrounding population during the COVID-19 pandemic. With new data emerging daily and lots of uncertainty surrounding the virus, CUDSH provided a safe and efficient dental service for those who had a dental emergency during the government restrictions.