Departmental Papers (Dental)

Document Type

Conference Paper

Date of this Version

7-1-2020

Publication Source

Head and Neck

Volume

42

Issue

7

Start Page

1497

Last Page

1502

DOI

10.1002/hed.26258

Abstract

Aim: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in society experiencing unprecedented challenges for health care practitioners and facilities serving at the frontlines of this pandemic. With regard to oral cancer, there is a complete absence of literature regarding the long-term impact of pandemics on patients with oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs). The objective of this article is to put forth an institutional multidisciplinary approach for the evaluation and management of OPMDs. Methods: A multidisciplinary approach was put formalized within our institution to risk stratify patients based on need for in-person assessment vs telehealth assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results: With judicious risk stratification of patients based on clinical features of their OPMD and with consideration of ongoing mitigation efforts and regional pandemic impact, providers are able to safely care for their patients. Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has required health care practitioners to make novel decisions that are new to us with development of creative pathways of care that focused on patient safety, mitigation efforts, and clinical management of disease processes. The care of patients with OPMDs requires special considerations especially as patients at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness are also higher risk for the development of OPMDs. © 2020 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Keywords

COVID-19, oral cancer, oral dysplasia, oral leukoplakia, oral potentially malignant disorders, Administration, Topical, Anti-Infective Agents, Local, Betacoronavirus, Clinical Decision-Making, Coronavirus Infections, Critical Pathways, Diagnosis, Differential, Humans, Infection Control, Infectious Disease Transmission, Patient-to-Professional, Leukoplakia, Oral, Mouth Neoplasms, Pandemics, Personal Protective Equipment, Pneumonia, Viral, Povidone-Iodine, Risk Assessment, Telemedicine, povidone iodine, topical antiinfective agent, clinical feature, Conference Paper, coronavirus disease 2019, frozen section, health care personnel, high risk patient, human, malignant transformation, mouth disease, multidisciplinary team, oral potentially malignant disorder, outcome assessment, patient care, patient safety, priority journal, Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, telehealth, Betacoronavirus, clinical decision making, clinical pathway, Coronavirus infection, differential diagnosis, disease transmission, infection control, leukoplakia, mouth tumor, pandemic, prevention and control, procedures, protective equipment, risk assessment, telemedicine, topical drug administration, virus pneumonia

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Date Posted: 10 February 2023

This document has been peer reviewed.