Odontogenic Abscesses during the Pandemic by SARS-CoV-2

Dental abscess are pathologies caused by infectious processes in the teeth and/or their surrounding tissues. They can lead to complications, or in some cases they can be lethal, in base of the anatomy of the area of the oral cavity in which they develop. Therefore, this is a recurrent reason why patients with an odontogenic abscess may need to go to the dental emergency room. In this study, the access data to the emergency room of the “Policlinico Umberto I” of patients with odontogenic abscesses were analyzed and were put into a relation with the epidemic by SARS-CoV-2. The periods of 2019 and 2020 have been taken into consideration and the pre- and post- lockdown periods were analyzed by comparing the data. Due to the restrictions imposed during the lockdown in Italy, we would have expected an increase in the number of accesses to the dental emergency room for odontogenic abscesses, but the results showed a decrease in the percentage of accesses for this pathology. Having regard to the results, an attempt to give a logical explanation to this decline in the numbers recorded at our Polyclinic has been made.