Journal of Oral Biology
Research Article
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
Oyetola EO*, Oluwadaisi AM, Adewale AA, Adebayo OF and Adesina OM
Department of Oral medicine and Oral Pathology, Obafemi Awolowo
University, Ile Ife, Nigeria
*Address for Correspondence: Oyetola EO, Department of Oral
medicine and Oral Pathology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria;
E-mail: Phemyhoye12@yahoo.com
Submission: 19-May-2022
Accepted: 28-June-2022
Published: 05-July-2022
Copyright: © 2022 Oyetola EO, et al. This is an open access article
distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.
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.