Dental Pain in Care Homes: Is It a Phenomenon? A Systematic Review of the Literature
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear authors,
after reading yours manuscript "Dental Pain in Care Homes: Is it a phenomenon? A systematic Review of the Literature" I have realised how poorly this issue is handled. I have not issues to be commenetd regarding the manuscript and looking forward for upcomming paper.
Author Response
Thank you for your supportive comments.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors
the paper is well written and can be considered for publication. However some minor revisions are needed
1) Please revise references according to the journal format
2) Please discuss the role of implant-prosthetic rehabilitations in such kind of patients, in with mini-invasive techniques like digital dentistry (cite PubMed ID34425664) or rehabilitations with tilted implants (cite DOI10.3390/app12136729) or axial ones (cite DOI10.23805/JO.2018.10.04.04)
3) Please describes the importance to follow specific covid guidelines in particular in such kind of patients (cite PubMed ID33135082) and discuss the possibility to use devices to diminish the risk of contamination of covid19 (cite PubMed ID 35564533)4) Discuss the possible application of specific oral hygiene programs to apply at such population. Please cite PubMed ID28696070
Author Response
Thank you for your comments. I have addressed the references as requested and added the following text and references as requested.
In recent years, the COVID – 19 pandemic has impacted significantly upon the work of care home staff and highlighted the importance of acknowledging the risks of cross contamination. Dental hygiene is an important factor which must be recognized as potentially causing cross infection where mouthcare devices should be single use and dedicated to individual use only. Similarly access to dental services has been highlighted as impacted during the pandemic, in particular in relation to emergency care (37, 38)
Furthermore, we are increasingly likely to see older adults and those with dementia having much more complex dental health needs, along with digital dentistry and other more technical requirements such as crowns and implants, including rehabilitation with tilted or axial implants. (19, 20, 21,)