COVID Cavities
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 13th August 2021
The events of the past year have thoroughly disrupted regular dental check-ups (and life generally!) across the country. As patients start to return to a semblance of normalcy, we are likely to see a tsunami of oral health issues that have built up; most of us have probably already seen the first waves breaking. Much of this will be routine, similar to what we generally see when patients miss their regular check-ups but now on a much broader scale. However, we should also expect the pandemic and the adaptations it has required, on both a public and personal level, to have generated additional challenges.
We are likely to see a marked increase in caries, both in number and progression. We know that the pandemic will have had a significant impact on how people have been eating, and that this in turn may have created ripe conditions for plaque and acidic attack. The early phase of the pandemic saw rampant panic buying, with the public snapping up every ounce of toilet paper and hand sanitiser shops could secure. Equally in demand were carbohydrate-heavy foods: bread, pasta, rice, cereals, and ready meals. High carbohydrate diets are strongly associated with caries, and may increase the risk of diabetes.[1] Of course, some patients may have actually managed to improve their diets during this time (many certainly tried) but it will be a while before we get a complete picture of where the balance lies.
Aside from essential workers, much of the public – from school children to office workers – have spent vastly more time at home. For many, this will have led to a reduction in exercise and socialisation, and quite likely an increase in snacking. It is well established that food choices, and quantities consumed, can be heavily influenced by psychological factors such as mood. For example, people inherently crave stimulation – when bored, this drives people towards snacking on foods that provide sensation. With many people spending extensive amounts of time in a home environment that provides little novel sensation (no travel, minimal social activity, etc.), this factor alone will have likely driven people to snack more.[2] In addition to boredom, snacking behaviours are also driven by stress, sleep patten disruption, poor mental health, and the simple availability of food (having food to hand or a few steps away).[3],[4] Additionally, inhibitions tend to drop when in one’s own space away from other people. Amongst other factors, the social pressure to eat healthily and maintain appearance is reduced.
More snacking results in teeth being more frequently exposed to acid challenges, and so increases the risk of dental caries and periodontal disease. A dramatic dietary change like this may also cause harmful changes to the oral microbiome, harming commensal microflora and promoting cariogenic bacteria that are more adapted for higher acidity environments. This can lead to a vicious circle, with harmful bacteria propagating and further altering the oral environment, which triggers chronic inflammation leading to gingivitis and its sequelae.[5]
Ideally, dental professionals help give patients the advice and care they need to prevent caries and periodontitis from developing in the first place, or at least halting their progression as soon as possible. Unfortunately, routine work has been disrupted and patients have been subject to a host of factors that could easily have impacted their oral health, even when they have avoided the direct dangers of COVID-19. In the aftermath, clinicians have to put every effort into optimising treatment. To deal with the backlog, dental teams need to be able to treat patients faster, otherwise they will never make headway.
With a likely influx of patients requiring treatments, you need a handpiece you can trust that enables you to be as efficient as possible. The W&H speed-increasing Synea Fusion handpiece is used in conjunction with an electric motor allowing it to run at maximum speeds of 200,000 rpm whilst offering impressive torque, control and precision. The full range of high quality Synea Fusion straight and contra-angle handpieces offer exceptional ergonomics and reliability, enabling you to maintain an efficient workflow. All this design comes in a cost-effective package, so look into Synea Fusion today.
Getting patients back on track will depend on seeing them and treating them expeditiously – the longer problems are allowed to develop, the harder they are to treat. In addition to dealing with dental concerns, clinicians need to help patients tackle factors that increase their risk such as diet. It’s important that bad habits developed during the pandemic are not allowed to take hold. The sooner intervention is achieved, the better.
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[1] Hujoel P., Lingström P. Nutrition, dental caries and periodontal disease: a narrative review. Journal of Clinical Periodontology. 2017; 44(Suppl. 18): 79-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpe.12672 April 14, 2021.
[2] Moynihan A., van Tilburg W., Igou E., Wisman A., Donnelly A., Mulcaire J. Eaten up by boredom: consuming food to escape awareness of the bored self. Frontiers in Psychology. 2015; 6: 369. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00369 April 15, 2021.
[3] Michels N. Poor mental health is related to excess weight via lifestyle: a cross-sectional gender- and age- dependent meditation analysis. Nutrients. 2021; 13(2): 406. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13020406 April 15, 2021.
[4] Hess J., Jonnalagadda S., Slavin J. What is a snack, why do we snack, and how can we choose better snacks? A review of the definitions of snacking, motivations to snack, contributions to dietary intake, and recommendations for improvement. Advances in Nutrition. 2016; 7(3): 466-475. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.115.009571 April 15, 2021.
[5] Nyvad B., Takahashi N. Integrated hypotheisis of dental caries and periodontal diseases. Journal of Oral Microbiology. 2020; 12(1): 1710953. https://doi.org/10.1080/20002297.2019.1710953 April 15, 2021.
