Global Journal of Medical Research, J: Dentistry and Otolaryngology, Volume 23 Issue 1

Covid-19 Quarantine and Dental Care: Patterns for Change Niccolo Caldararo Abstract- Introduction: Significant time and money are spent on dental visits under normal conditions. The Covid-19 pandemic has placed a stop to these regimes. The consequences of this has been shown mainly in increased emergency care, however, little is known of the effect on the general population and how well oral care and the natural ability of teeth and the immune system have worked to preserve dental health. Materials & Methods: Reference to reports in the media on oral health and dental visits are analyzed as are the dental literature for scientific foundations of treatment and pathology. Principal Results: Current reduction of visits to dental professionals by both adults and children provides a unique opportunity to study healing of teeth in a natural context. Conclusions: Research should be organized and directed to investigate the frequency of caries and natural healing in populations across socio-economic groups to determine potential changed in dental regimes of care and treatment. Keywords: dental care, caries, restorations, oral health, genetics. I. I ntroduction he Covid-19 pandemic has changed many of the daily routines of the average person. One of these is the reduction in dental care. While dentists have reported more stress related dental problems during the pandemic, the CareQuest Institute for Oral Health found that some 6 million adults had lost dental insurance, which indicates a larger number of dependents also lost covered care. More than 1 in 10 Americans surveyed had avoided getting care due to the cost, lack of insurance or fear of exposure to Covid-19 or a combination of factors. (Tingley, 2021). A press release by the FDI World Dental Federation dated March 18 th 2021, cited a number of dental professionals whose practice indicated an increase of dental emergencies as well as other basic dental pathologies. No scientific studies are available to support this assertion, but it does seem likely. Data collected by the AARP (Stepko, 2021) suggested that cavities and periodontal gum disease was up significantly. This was partly blamed on a change in diet to sugary foods and drink and to lax dental care related to job and life changes brought on by the quarantine. One published study in Germany (Al -Masri, et al., 2021) Author: PhD, Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, Ca. 94132. e-mail: cald@sfsu.edu found a 45% increase in emergency needed care in 2020. With this information in mind, and no specific study data of if there has been a over all increase in cavities within the known factors of change of diet or loss of regular care (dental cleanings, scaling, fluoride etc.), it will be of interest to see if general trends can be extracted from care data after treatment resumes to normal levels. II. N atural R esponse of the T ooth There are a number of considerations that this information could enlighten health care professionals. It is known that under normal use teeth can repair themselves under both poor care and a range of diets. It is well established that arrested caries is a fairly common phenomenon (Shafer, et al., 1969), the infected tooth attempts to wall off the attack and electron microscope images can show dentinal tubules filled with dead bacteria and the progress started by “pioneer bacteria” arrested at the meridian of proteolytic forms. While some absorption of bone can result from infection or trauma, the defensive capacity of the oral tissues seems to have a certain degree of success. There has been little research on this point and there are concerns that the lack of scientific evidence looms over dental procedures in general (Jabr, 2019). Some dentists argue that a lack of funding has stalled scientific research (Dhar, 2016). III. B enefits and D eficits of I nterventions On the other hand, dental interventions by professionals requires the use of drills of different kinds, these generate heat which is damaging to the tissue of the teeth, and techniques of sterilization are seldom perfect leaving some microorganisms in situ. The use of a variety of materials to seal the tooth from the older Zinc Phosphate cement to newer self-polymerizing acrylic resins and recent mixtures with UV polymerization, ceramic and composites, seldom produce entirely closed joints with the enamel of the tooth and most amalgam also leaks introducing bacteria (Shafer, et al., 1969). One might say that modern restoration procedures are effective at removing infected tissue and bacteria, but less so at creating barriers to infection, especially given their own degradation times. T 1 Year Global Journal of Medical Research Volume XXIII Issue I Version I ( DD ) 2023 J © 2023 Global Journals