The impact of COVID-19 on children's oral health indexes

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the oral health indexes of children seen at the Clínica Escola of a private university in Belo Horizonte. Material and Method: The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (CAAE: 56089322.6.0000.5097) and it was a study carried out through the analysis of data from medical records of children who received dental care at the institution from January 2017 to March 2022. Data collected were oral health indexes of bacterial plaque and gingival bleeding. Results: The results were analyzed using the SPSS statistical program version 28.0 (IBM® SPSS® Statistics). Of the 544 medical records analyzed, only 9 were correctly filled out. The age ranged from 3 to 13 years, with an average of 7.44 years. The gingival bleeding rate before the pandemic ranged from 0% to 81%. During the pandemic, it ranged from 0% to 44%. Comparing the periods, the index improved for 55.6% of children, remained at 22.2% and worsened to 22.2%. Regarding the plaque index, before the pandemic, 50.0% of the children had an excellent/very good index, 37.5% good/regular and 12.5% bad or very bad. During the pandemic, 33.3% of children had an excellent/very good index, 55.5% good/regular and 11.1% bad or very bad. Comparing the periods, the index improved to 37.5% of the children, remained at 25.0% and worsened to 37.5%. Conclusion: It is concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic affected oral health indexes in children.