COVID-19 lockdown and recovery: a dental public health perspective from Lancashire and South Cumbria

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has created novel barriers in providing and accessing all forms of healthcare, including dentistry. The national dental response during the first peak of the pandemic resulted in rapid changes in the provision of service, to safeguard providers and users of dental care. Such rapidly leveraged changes resulted in several issues in service delivery, requiring careful input from managers and commissioners within NHS England and Improvement, trainees and consultants in dental public health within Public Health England, and frontline dental teams working across the health and social care system. The local response from Lancashire and South Cumbria is outlined within this article. Teamwork, communication and reflexive, iterative learning from these groups ensured the delivery of an Urgent Dental Care service during the first lockdown of the pandemic. The impact of COVID-19 has enabled considerable learning which will inform future pandemic planning, alongside providing the opportunity to deliver meaningful change within NHS dentistry as the service continues to recover.