Impact of COVID-19 on pediatric dental care: literature review

Abstract

COVID-19 spread rapidly around the world, becoming a major public health challenge. We know that the disease is transmitted through droplets of saliva produced by speaking, coughing, and sneezing, and is mostly less severe in children and often asymptomatic. The objective of this article is to conduct a literature review on the impact of COVID-19 on pediatric dental care, providing recommendations on the most commonly used clinical practices, patient management protocols to provide ideal dental care, and simultaneously prevent the spread of infection in dental settings. A literature search was conducted, between 2019 and 2020, in the PubMed database, using the descriptors 'COVID-19', 'pediatric dentistry', and 'coronavirus', combined with the Boolean operator 'AND'. Among the inclusion criteria, the aspects considered were the availability of the full text, eligible articles written in English and Portuguese, and exclusion of articles that did not present clinical relevance on the addressed topic and had inadequate methodology. Sixty-two studies were found, and after analysis, 17 articles were selected that correlated with the topic. The results highlight the main preventive measures used to reduce cross-infection, such as phone screening, proper use of PPE, and the use of minimally invasive techniques. COVID-19 had a major impact on pediatric dental care, completely changing routine activities and following universal and local protocols to provide protected and safe care for everyone.