Ouch! It Hurts: Lockdown, dental pain and measures to control it

The COVID-19 Pandemic brought the world to a standstill with a lockdown being imposed across various corners of the globe to prevent the spread of this life-threatening virus. It was during these times that access to emergency medical and dental services were also greatly hampered. Therefore, the present study was an attempt to assess the prevalence of dental pain and the measures adopted by people across the globe to relieve themselves of the pain. Data was collected through a pre-tested and pre-validated online questionnaire (google forms) divided in to 3 sections and having a total of 18 questions and analyzed using SPPS version 21.0. Analysis of the results revealed that out of a total of 1003 respondents, 41.3% of people visited their dentist more than a year ago, 35.1% reported pain due to recent RCT followed by 29.7% people reporting pain due to an unknown reason. The two most common chief complaints were (27.2% each) were pain while eating/swallowing and pain without any unknown stimulus. 36.8% of people waited for the pain to subside on its own while 26.3% took painkillers without any prescription. 65% of people tried home remedies. 68.1 % waited for the lockdown to get over, while 32.4% consulted their dentist over the phone.  As per analysis of data, it was concluded that most people tried to use home remedies to cure themselves of pain and patients are advised for patients to get their regular dental checkups done in the future with no delay in any dental treatment so that they suffer minimum or no dental pain during another lockdown in the wake of another global pandemic.