THE OCCURRENCE OF MOUTH BIOPSIES IN A SOUTH BRAZILIAN CITY SECONDARY CARE CENTER: A COMPARISON BETWEEN 2019 AND 2020

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected health systems, overloading all complexity levels of attention and even interrupting care in many specialties. The aim of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of mouth biopsies performed in a southern Brazilian city public dental service between 2019 and 2020. STUDY DESIGN: This is an observational, retrospective, and descriptive study. Data on oral soft tissue biopsy procedures were collected from an electronic database of a secondary dental care center in a city of the state of Paraná, Brazil, with approximately 240,000 inhabitants. RESULTS: In 2019, there were 527 appointments, including oral diagnosis and extraction of third molars, and 237 missed appointments (31%), and 23 biopsies were performed (4.4% of Q114 appointments). In 2020, there were 177 appointments, 51 missed appointments (22%), and 18 biopsies were performed (10.2% of appointments) CONCLUSIONS: Incisional biopsy of abnormal tissues of the mouth constitutes urgent dental care as the standard procedure for diagnosing oral cancer. In this specific city, the appointments for oral diagnosis and third molar surgery significantly reduced in 2020 compared to 2019. The number of biopsies was less affected, suggesting that emergencies remained prioritized even in a social isolation measures context.