Forschungsinformationssystem Universität Greifswald

During the COVID-19 pandemic the use of dental aerosol generating procedures should be minimised. This study evaluates the use of non-aerosol treatment procedures (NATP) provided to children at a paediatric dentistry department in the period of total lock-down in Germany (March-April 2020) with a 6-months follow-up. Methods: 83 patients seeking emergency dental treatment (e.g., pain, trauma, etc.) attended the department of whom patients visiting the clinic due to dental caries and treated with NATP were included for this analysis. Retrospective data collection of baseline treatments and 6-months follow-up was performed. Results: the treatments of 22 patients (mean dmft/DMFT 5.75±3.07/2.22±2.9) were categorized according to the clinical diagnosis: Category I (n=10; 45.5%, mean age 4±2.6) included patients with active carious lesions (ICDAS 3-5) and reversible pulpitis, mainly ECC. Nine out of ten patients (90%) were treated with silver diammine fluoride (SDF), and one (10%) with the Hall technique. In the SDF-treated patients, one patient presented shortly after with pain and was medicated. The other 8 cases presented no complications during the follow-up period and affected teeth were later either restored or left with no restoration. Category II included teeth with irreversible pulpitis or facial swelling of dental origin (e.g. submucosal abscess; n=12; 54.5%, mean age 8.3±3.6). Treatments provided were extraction (n=5; 41.7%), or antibiotics prescription (n=7; 58.3%) of whom five patients received extraction after the lock-down with no patient having recurrence of pain. In one case the primary tooth exfoliated, and in another case endodontic treatment was provided later-on. Conclusion: non-aerosol treatments are viable options for managing caries related emergency cases in paediatric dentistry and are advantageous to postpone the need of an immediate treatment in case of high ris of infectious transmission.