Pattern of Oral and Maxillofacial New Referrals During COVID-19 Lockdown

The study aimed to quantify the impact of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic on new case referrals to the Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery (OMS) service. The researchers retrospectively reviewed all new referrals received during a government-imposed 47-day lockdown period and a similar period pre-lockdown as a control group. The main outcome was the differences in the number of new case referrals between the two periods. The contributing clinical and demographic factors were also explored. Appropriate bivariate statistics were computed and the level of significance was set at 0.05 for all tests. A total of 309 referrals were received during the study period. There was a reduction of new referrals due to the lockdown from five to two cases per day. There was a statistically significant reduction of cases referred from outpatient and emergency departments. There was also a statistically significant difference with regard to home address distance to the centre. Medically compromised and orofacial infection referrals were not affected by lockdown. The lockdown imposed due to the pandemic has significantly impacted the pattern of new OMS referrals. Referrals for orofacial infections, the medically compromised and inpatients were minimally affected by lockdown.