IMPACTO DA PANDEMIA DA COVID-19 NOS ATENDIMENTOS ODONTOLÓGICOS DA ATENÇÃO PRIMÁRIA À SAÚDE DE TEÓFILO OTONI (MG)

Abstract

In the year 2019, a new virus was discovered (SARS-CoV-2), popularly called Coronavirus. Months later, on March 11, 2020, with the increase in the number of infected and dead people around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized the COVID-19 pandemic. The Brazilian governmental institutions with the WHO, have taken initiatives for the prevention against the virus. Thus, recommendations such as mask use, proper hand hygiene, food and surfaces, social distancing, social isolation, and even lockdown were passed on to the population. As a result of these measures, professional areas were affected, among them dentistry, and the number of public dentistry appointments in some Brazilian municipalities decreased or was paralyzed, in order to prevent the spread of the virus. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the dental care provided by PHC in the period before and during the pandemic period in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 in the city of Teófilo Otoni, Minas Gerais. The data used for this work were collected in the SISAB platform, they are: types and quantity of dental consultations and dental procedures. After analyzing the data, a comparison was made of the quantity of each type of service performed in these years, in order to verify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the branch of dentistry in the municipality. By analyzing the data, it is possible to observe that the year 2018 had 5,555 appointments and only 1,159 procedures were performed. In 2019, 6,565 appointments and only 2,351 procedures were performed, the year 2020 had, 2,485 appointments and only 1,253 procedures, and in 2021, 4,358 appointments and 3,094 procedures were performed. According to the data analysis it was possible to verify that there was a discrepancy in the information made available. The impact was greater in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic, this result can be attributed to the population's fear of contracting the virus, mainly due to the fact that the major route of virus transmission is through saliva. In the city of Teófilo Otoni, as in the entire state, dental activities were restricted to urgencies and emergencies. With this study, it can be observed that the dental service provided by the municipality of Teófilo Otoni and region was already precarious before the pandemic period, since of the 42 health posts only 10 have oral health team. The services provided in 2018 and 2019 were already low, compared to the number of inhabitants in the municipality, as well as the few procedures performed. It was observed the discrepancy in the number of procedures performed and total consultations, for which it was not possible to obtain the real reason.