Oral mucosal lesions in patients with COVID-19: a systematic review.

COVID-19 is a new disease that presents mainly with respiratory symptoms. However, it can present with a multitude of signs and symptoms that affect various body systems and several oral manifestations have also been reported. We carried out a systematic review to explore the types of oral mucosal lesions that have been reported in the COVID-19-related literature up to 25 March 2021. A structured electronic database search using Medline, Embase, and CINAHL, as well as a grey literature search using Google Scholar, revealed a total of 322 studies. After the removal of duplicates and completion of the primary and secondary filtering processes, 12 studies were included for final appraisal. In patients with COVID-19 infection, we identified several different types of oral mucosal lesions at various locations within the oral cavity. Most of the studies appraised had a high risk of bias according to the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist. The current published literature does not allow differentiation as to whether the oral lesions were caused by the viral infection itself, or were related to oral manifestations secondary to existing comorbidities or the treatment instigated to combat the disease. It is important for healthcare professionals to be aware of the possible link between COVID-19 and oral mucosal lesions, and we hereby discuss our findings.

Dental Public Health in Action: Utilising a telephone triage system to run an Urgent Dental Care Hub during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to explore the outcome of a telephone triage system used by different team members to run an Urgent Dental Care Hub (UDCH) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will also look at the adjustments made to the system because of the challenges faced. Data were collected from the telephone triage proforma and clinical notes of patients that were triaged from 2nd April to 10th June 2020. With 65% of telephone triaged and accepted patients receiving definitive treatment that alleviated the presenting complaint, the value of telephone triage is highlighted in streamlining an urgent dental care service during a viral pandemic. Public health competencies being illustrated: Dental public health intelligence, Developing and monitoring quality dental services.

Refugees: addressing the burden of oral disease through prevention.

In February 2017 a cohort of dental students travelled to Athens, Greece where they assisted in providing dental care to refugees and conducted oral hygiene workshops in Skaramagas Refugee camp. With respect to patient presentation, caries was found to be extremely prevalent due to patient diet, accessibility to care and oral hygiene practices. Due to the extensive nature of the work, time constraints and resource availability focus was directed on reducing disease burden through prevention. This article explores the challenges of delivering preventative treatment as well as its advantage over conventional therapeutic care in the context of a humanitarian crisis. It also seeks to inspire other healthcare professionals to undertake outreach work within the UK and abroad.

Implementation of trinary logic in a polarization encoded optical shadow-casting scheme.

The design of various multioutput trinary combinational logic units by a polarization encoded optical shadow-casting (POSC) technique is presented. The POSC modified algorithm is employed to design and implement these logic elements in a trinary number system with separate and simultaneous generation of outputs. A detailed solution of the POSC logic equations for a fixed source plane and a fixed decoding mask is given to obtain input pixel coding for a trinary half-adder, full adder, and subtractor.

Separate and simultaneous generation of multioutputs in a polarization-encoded optical shadow-casting scheme: design of half- and full adders and subtractors.

A design algorithm for separate and simultaneous generation of multioutputs in a polarization-encoded optical shadow-casting (POSC) scheme is presented. The logic unit truth table is converted into POSC logic equations for true and false logic. These are then solved consistently to obtain source plane, input pixel, and the decoding mask characteristics. The algorithm is used to design binary half-adder and half-subtractor and full adder and full subtractor to carry out all operations with a fixed source plane and a fixed decoding mask. The results have been verified experimentally.

Design of optical decoders using a polarization-encoded optical shadow-casting scheme.

We present the design of various decoders in the polarization-encoded optical shadow-casting scheme (POSC). A general algorithm is used to design these multioutput combinational logic units with separate and simultaneous generation of outputs. In particular, the design of a binary coded decimal (BCD) to an Octal decoder and a BCD to an Excess-3 converter is presented for a fixed source plane as well as a fixed decoding mask. The results have been verified experimentally.