Challenges in providing special care dentistry during COVID-19 pandemic: a survey of public dental care services in Italy.

Background: The aim of this paper was to assess COVID-19 pandemic impact over the public health care services (HCS) involved in special care dentistry (SCD).

Methods: Customized questionnaire was sent to 45 HCS involved in SCD. Healthcare personnel (HP) on duty, safety of HCS, time of suspension and reduction of routine dental practice in special needs patients (SNP), kind of SNP mostly penalized during pre-COVID period/T1, lockdown (phase 1/T2) and post pandemic reopening (phase 2/T3) were analyzed by statistical means (P<0.