Children’s dentistry in secondary care during COVID-19

Abstract

© 2020 George Warman Publications. All rights reserved. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a unique set of challenges to assessing and treating paediatric dental patients in the secondary care setting. These children often present with high disease burdens and high levels of anxiety. In addition, they may have medical conditions which add to their treatment complexity. At the Royal London Dental Hospital, innovations have been put in place to improve the patient journey in a time where access to both out-patient and general anaesthetic services have been severely limited. Long term these innovations will help us to improve our service and facilitate communication with patients/carers, general dental and medical practitioners, safeguarding and specialist medical teams. It will create more flexible and creative work patterns for the dental team. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This paper illustrates the innovations that were introduced to overcome the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.