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The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Selection, Surgical Procedures, and Postoperative Complications in a Specialized Dental Implant Clinic

Authors :
Balazs Feher
Cordelia Wieser
Theresa Lukes
Christian Ulm
Reinhard Gruber
Ulrike Kuchler
Source :
Journal of Clinical Medicine, Vol 11, Iss 855, p 855 (2022), Feher, Balazs; Wieser, Cordelia; Lukes, Theresa; Ulm, Christian; Gruber, Reinhard; Kuchler, Ulrike (2022). The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Patient Selection, Surgical Procedures, and Postoperative Complications in a Specialized Dental Implant Clinic. Journal of clinical medicine, 11(3) MDPI 10.3390/jcm11030855 , Journal of Clinical Medicine; Volume 11; Issue 3; Pages: 855
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2022.

Abstract

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, aerosol-generating procedures, including dental implant treatments, are considered high-risk. With dental implant treatment mostly an elective procedure, we aimed to assess whether the pandemic influenced patient selection, surgical procedures, and postoperative complications. We compared dental implant treatments during (March to December 2020) and before (December 2018 to February 2020) the COVID-19 pandemic based on patient and implant parameters, as well as postoperative complications. For analysis, we used the Chi-squared test with the Holm–Sidak correction for multiple comparisons. The number of implants placed during the COVID-19 pandemic (696 implants in 406 patients, 70 implants per month) was comparable to pre-pandemic levels (1204 implants in 616 patients, 80 implants per month). Regarding patient parameters, there were no significant differences in respiratory (p = 0.69) and cardiovascular conditions (p = 0.06), diabetes (p = 0.69), and smoking (p = 0.68). Regarding implant parameters, there was a significant difference in the distribution of augmentative procedures (no augmentation, guided bone regeneration, and sinus floor elevation, p = 0.01), but no significant differences in the types of edentulous spaces (p = 0.19) and the timing of implant placement (p = 0.52). Regarding complications, there were significantly fewer minor complications (p < 0.001) and early (i.e., before loading) implant failures (p = 0.02) compared with pre-pandemic levels. Our results suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had no effect on patient selection and only a slight effect on the surgical procedures. However, postoperative complications, including early failures, were significantly less prevalent during the pandemic.

Details

ISSN :
20770383
Volume :
11
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Journal of Clinical Medicine
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....fbfc016504bf8b66d65d49da76a14b75
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm11030855