Covid-19 Pandemic: What Changes for Dentists and Oral Medicine Experts? A Narrative Review and Novel Approaches to Infection Containment

Abstract

The authors performed a narrative review on Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome- CoronaVirus-2 ( SARS-CoV-2) and all infectious agents with the primary endpoints to illustrate the most accepted models of safety protocols in dentistry and oral medicine, and to propose an easy view of the problem and a comparison (pre- vs post-COVID19) for the most common dental procedures. The outcome is forecast to help dentists to individuate for a given procedure the differences in terms of safety protocols to avoid infectious contagion (by SARS-CoV-2 and others dangerous agents). An investigation was performed on the online databases Pubmed and Scopus using a combination of free words and Medical Subject Headings (MESH) terms: “dentist” OR “oral health” AND “COVID-19” OR “SARS-CoV-2” OR “coronavirus-19”. After a brief excursus on all infectious agents transmittable at the dental chair, the authors described all the personal protective equipment (PPE) actually on the market and their indications, and on the basis of the literature, they compared (before and after COVID-19 onset) the correct safety procedures for each dental practice studied, underlining the danger of underestimating, in general, dental cross-infections. The authors have highlighted the importance of knowing exactly the risk of infections in the dental practice, and to modulate correctly the use of PPE, in order to invest adequate financial resources and to avoid exposing both the dental team and patients to preventable risks.

Do COVID‐19 Control Guidelines for Long‐Term Care Facilities Include Oral Healthcare Orientations?

“…9 Face shields must be used as an alternative to the usual dentist glasses to protect other areas of the face besides the eyes. 9 Additionally, the chemical oral biofilm control must be an alternative method for oral hygiene of the dentate and edentate older adults, minimizing droplets/aerosol production. Antiseptic mouth rinses could be used before oral hygiene procedures to decrease the oral viral load in droplets/aerosols in infected subjects and the risk of transmission.…”

Strategic implementation of dental infection control in resource-poor jurisdictions during COVID-19 pandemic: a perspective from South Africa

“…As mentioned, dental practice and aerosol generation are inextricably linked due to interventional procedures that generate copious volumes of droplets, splatter and aerosol [4,5]. The regulatory measures for dental professionals advocated by many organisations, can be relatively easily implemented in resource-rich, first-world nations where personal protective equipment (PPE) is available and clinic decontamination and other instructions could be readily realised [18][19][20][21][22]. On perusal of the literature we were unable to locate any publications on strategic and coordinated response to dental services in resource-constrained, developing countries during the current pandemic, apart from a single, short opinion piece from Pakistan [23].…”

Recommendations, Practices and Infrastructural Model for the Dental Radiology Set-up in Clinical and Academic Institutions in the COVID-19 Era

“… Ventilation of the operating room: Generally, radiology offices don’t have windows as the room is completely sealed off for effective air conditioner. Hence it is suggested to devise a mechanism wherein the air inside the room is expelled out via a high efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filter which has an efficiency to filter the suspended particles measuring size of 0.3 microns [ 46 ]. This modification will be beneficial in reducing the risk of personals from getting infection [ 47 ].…”