Effect of COVID-19 on Coverage of Dental Services in Latvia-Reference-Cited by-同舟云学术

Effect of COVID-19 on Coverage of Dental Services in Latvia

Published:2024-02-01 Issue:1 Volume:78 Page:29-34
ISSN:2255-890X
Container-title:Proceedings of the Latvian Academy of Sciences. Section B. Natural, Exact, and Applied Sciences.
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Maldupa Ilze¹,Senakola Egita¹,Brinkmane Anda¹,Ķīvīte-Urtāne Anda²³,Uribe Sergio E.¹⁴⁵⁶

Affiliation:

1. Conservative Dentistry and Oral Health , Rīga Stradiņš University , 20 Dzirciema Str ., Rīga , , Latvia

2. Institute of Public Health , Rīga Stradiņš University , 20 Dzirciema Str ., Rīga , , Latvia

3. Department of Public Health and Epidemiology , Rīga Stradiņš University , 20 Dzirciema Str ., Rīga , , Latvia

4. Faculty of Dentistry , University of Valparaiso , Valparaiso , Chile

5. Baltic Biomaterials Centre of Excellence , Rīga Technical University , 3 Pulka Str ., Rīga , , Latvia

6. Bioinformatics Lab , Rīga Stradiņš University , 16 Dzirciema Str ., Rīga , , Latvia

Abstract

Abstract This study aimed to describe the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health decisions on dental services. A retrospective study was conducted using secondary data on dental services (2019–2021). Data were obtained from the Latvian National Health Service and the Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and analysed using descriptive statistics and data visualisation methods. In the first wave of COVID-19, the frequency of routine dental services decreased by 81.6% at the patient level, which coincided with the restrictions imposed as public health measures. The amount of regular dental manipulations returned to its previous level immediately after lifting restrictions. Still, they decreased to a more moderate extent (not exceeding 25% decline) with the beginning of the second wave. We observed a decrease in all manipulations, regardless of their aerosol-generating risk, and no increase in preventive manipulations that could be performed without any physical contact. We conclude that the most significant decrease in the availability of services was directly linked to existing public health measures. It seems that these measures allowed time to adapt the clinics to the new sanitary requirements, further ensuring continuity of service provision.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Link

https://www.sciendo.com/pdf/10.2478/prolas-2024-0005

Reference24 articles.

1. Cagetti, M. G., Angelino, E. (2020). Could SARS-CoV-2 burst the use of non-Invasive and minimally invasive treatments in paediatric dentistry? Int. J. Paed. Dent., 1 (1), 27-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/ipd.12679.

2. Clarkson, J., Ramsay, C., Aceves, M., Brazzelli, M., Colloc, T., Dave, M., Glenny, A.-M., Goulão, B., Lamont, T. J., Richards, D., et al. (2020). Recommendations for the re-opening of dental services: a rapid review of international sources. https://aura.abdn.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2164/14282/covid19_dental_reopening_rapid_review_07052020.pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 12.01.2024).

3. COVID-19: Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases, provided by JHU CSSE. (n.d.). Github. https://github.com/CSSEGISandData/COVID-19 (accessed 12.01.2024).

4. Estrich, C. G., Mikkelsen, M., Morrissey, R., Geisinger, M. L., Ioannidou, E., Vujicic, M., Araujo, M. W. B. (2020). Estimating COVID-19 prevalence and infection control practices among US dentists. J. Amer. Det. Assoc., 151 (11), 815–824.

5. Firke, S. (2020). janitor: Simple tools for examining and cleaning dirty data. R Package Version 1.2. 0. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=janitor (accessed 12.01.2024).