Paediatric Dentistry and the coronavirus (COVID-19) response in the North East of England and North Cumbria

  1. S Simpson
  2. O Sumner
  3. R Holliday
  4. CC Currie
  5. V Hind
  6. N Lush
  7. LA Burbridge
  8. BOI Cole

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Abstract

Introduction

Coronavirus (COVID-19) has dramatically changed the landscape of dentistry including Paediatric Dentistry. This paper explores paediatric patient data within a wider service evaluation completed within an Urgent Dental Care Centre in the North East of England and North Cumbria over a 6-week period.

Aim

To assess demand for the service, patient demographics and inform paediatric urgent dental care pathways.

Main outcome methods

Data collected included key characteristics of paediatric patients accessing Paediatric Dental Services from 23 rd March to 3 rd May 2020. Descriptive statistics were used for analysis.

Results

There were 369 consultations (207 telephone, 124 face-to-face and 38 Out of Hours consultations). The mean age of children accessing the service was 7 years old. 7% of those attending face-to-face visits were reattenders. The most common diagnoses were irreversible pulpitis and dental trauma. 49% of face-to-face consultations resulted in extractions, 28% with General Anaesthetic, and 21% with Local Anaesthetic.

Conclusion

Management of dental emergencies provided by the Urgent Dental Care Centre for paediatric patients has largely been effective and confirmed the efficacy of patient pathways established.

Three in Brief Points

  • ⍰ Describes the approach adopted in the North East of England and North Cumbria to managing paediatric dental emergencies during the coronavirus pandemic

  • ⍰ Provides an overview of dental problems and management provided to paediatric patients in the first 6 weeks of the coronavirus pandemic

  • ⍰ Confirms the need for general anaesthetic services for exodontia in the paediatric population

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    1. ScreenIT

      SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.02.20114967: (What is this?)

      Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

      Table 1: Rigor

      Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
      Randomizationnot detected.
      Blindingnot detected.
      Power Analysisnot detected.
      Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

      Table 2: Resources

      Software and Algorithms
      SentencesResources
      Descriptive statistics were performed in SPSS (Windows version 25.0.0.1; SPSS Inc.,
      SPSS
      suggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)

      Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

      Results from LimitationRecognizer: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

      Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

      Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

      Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

      Results from rtransparent:
      • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
      • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
      • No protocol registration statement was detected.

      About SciScore

      SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

    2. Version published to 10.1101/2020.06.02.20114967v1 on medRxiv