The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in managing dental pain: A case report on a foreign body reaction after third molar surgery

Abstract

The COVID‐19 pandemic has become a widespread public health concern. Restrictions to dental health care services have been implemented to reduce the risk of transmission. Managing dental pain can become difficult and challenging for those undergoing mandatory quarantine for fourteen days and as a result are unable able to access dental care. They often need to resort to pharmacological intervention such as antibiotics and analgesics for pain relief. This case report presents a returned overseas traveller to Australia who developed dental pain and significant facial swelling whilst in quarantine. The traveller had recently undergone third molar surgery in another country prior to returning home. Upon release, the patient attended a dental clinic and the cause of pain was due to an iatrogenic foreign body (gauze strip and surgical bur) in the mandibular third molar extraction socket. This case reemphasises the dilemma that foreign bodies can have harmful consequences and can lead to a serious complication without surgical retrieval.