Palliative dental care: Ignored dimension of dentistry amidst COVID-19 pandemic.

Palliative care (PC) represents an approach that encompasses the procedures to relieve pain and distressing symptoms and maintain function as much as possible in the terminally ill patient until death. PC dentistry (PCD) is an approach for providing supportive and palliative dental care in patients with serious life-threatening illness (cancer, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cognitive impairment). The care is provided at different time points of diseases (i.e., from in-therapy care to survivorship care to end-of-life care). Dentists have a significant role to play in the multidisciplinary team of PC. Oral health problems (ulcers, mucositis, pulpitis and abscess) have a negative impact on general health and quality of life and can be acutely debilitating in these patients. These patients with existing comorbidities are at increased risk of developing oral complications. Furthermore, social isolation can cause an increase in anxiety, hopelessness, psychosocial and existential suffering amongst these patients. It is essential to incorporate PCD in the guidelines of critical dental care during the COVID-19 pandemic to decrease the suffering of these patients by symptom management. Teledentistry can be used with caution to provide at-home care to such patients during the pandemic.