Hospital dentistry and dental care for patients with special needs: Dental approach during covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID19 pandemic brought a new panorama for the realization of dental treatment for the general population due to the risk of cross infection in the dental office, aerosol formation and insertion of new personal protective equipment. Emergency and emergency dental criteria were defined to limit the flow of patients in the office in order to improve biosafety conditions among patients. Objective: to describe the dental procedures pertinent to outpatient special care or during hospitalization in the VOCID19 pandemic, changes in care and implement biosecurity criteria. Basic procedures: The dental care of the special patient suffers changes, mainly referring to the difficulty of access to the offices, interruption of the conditioning process and difficulty to perform outpatient sedation and sedation with nitrous oxide. Dental care during hospitalization is essential in this patient due to prolonged time of tracheal oro intubation, traumatic oral lesions, preparation of specific oral care protocols, removal of mouth infectious and installation of mouth protectors. Conclusion: Change of care, inclusion of individual protection equipment and new knowledge about the COVID19 allows us to safely assist the patient with special needs both in the dental office and in hospital environment, providing quality of life, oral comfort and reducing oral infections during and after the pandemic. © 2020, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Institute of Science and Technology of Sao Jose dos Campos. All rights reserved.