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Supporting Your Practice

A New Article on the Challenges COVID-19 Poses for Dental and Oral Medicine

The Journal of Dental Research, co-owned by the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) and the American Association of Dental Research (AADR), has published a paper written by researchers at Wuhan University School & Hospital of Stomatology with a number of recommendations for dental practitioners and dental students in light of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that was first reported in Wuhan, China. The virus that causes COVID-19 has been identified as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2).

“For dental practices and hospitals in countries / regions that are (potentially) affected with COVID-19, strict and effective infection control protocols are urgently needed. Dentists should take strict personal protection measures and avoid or minimize operations that can produce droplets or aerosols. Four-handed technique is beneficial for controlling infection. The use of saliva ejectors with low volume or high volume can reduce the production of droplets and aerosols.” Prof. Zhuan BIAN and coauthors

The article was brought to our attention and we are passing it along to keep you informed. You can access the full article through the link below:

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): Emerging and Future Challenges for Dental and Oral Medicine

We always look forward to hearing your thoughts and receiving your questions and/or suggestions about this post and other topics. Leave a comment in the box below or send us your feedback by email.

Until next time!
CDA Oasis Team

8 Comments

  1. Anonymous March 18, 2020

    That is something we do every day with every patient.

    Reply
  2. Anonymous March 19, 2020

    When I read this to my colleagues the first comment was, ” you mean just like I have been doing for every patient I have ever seen”. This should not be new information for anyone in this country. It would help if the provincial dental associations could get the message out that standard infection control practices do, and will keep people safe. People should not feel vulnerable to COVID-19 when receiving regular dental care. That should be the message. That being said, it is also important to some how to keep social distancing. The waiting areas are the real problem. We all need to do our part.

    Reply
  3. Anonymous March 20, 2020

    The masks we wear are useless – they are just for show.
    Pick up a high speed handpiece and do a surgical extraction- Coronavirus will be everywhere-the only offices in Ontario that are open are those that have N 95 masks, face shields and full gowning.
    Imagine having an abscessed tooth and having to be on antibiotics and painkillers for three or four months.
    Imagine all the surgery that will need to be done when we return to our offices

    Reply
  4. A March 23, 2020

    Those of us who can think and reason for ourselves without ivory tower legislators pushing stuff down our throats, only to the betterment of dental supply companies have known since the beginning that the masks we wear are NOTHING BUT OPTICS!!! Read the science…. not the politics!!! My father, a U of A Dental school grad’53, always said ” follow the money”…. he was SOOOOO right!!!
    Novel viruses are just beginning…. I can see it now…legislated hazmat suits, mandated low pressure operatories ( at least one/dentist in each office so we can “take the pressure off of the health care system”). We are moving from spores to respiratory viruses…patient temperature testing at each appt, patient proof of vaccination, more test kits, more record keeping, more of everything except delivering dentistry. So glad I’m nearing the end of my career. Will certainly miss the building of relationships which has been replaced by the politics of licensing bodies

    Reply
  5. Anonymous March 25, 2020

    As the wise sage Dorothy once said …”Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore”.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous March 26, 2020

    I read that linked article and I honestly think that this shutdown of regular dental practice except for emergencies (at least here in Alberta) is sending out a bad message that our protocols were/are not good enough. What more are we supposed to actually do? A lot of offices are open spaces ( so are dental schools) so I don’t see us having to use negative pressure rooms to see people. Yes, we already use gloves, goggles, rubber dams, high volume suction, 4-handed dentistry and pre-rinsing. Yes, we clean and disinfect the rooms and sterilize instruments between patients. Yes, using a high speed or an ultrasonic scaler kicks up an aerosol. People know this and we do a very good job of mitigating this and still making regular dentistry accessible to folks without spreading around illness. If we have to start gowning up for all the restorative and hygiene appointments, and wear expensive single use N95 masks. Could you just imagine how many gowns would be required for one dentists’s normal day (times 2 for the assistant)$$$$? People were not getting COVID-19 because the dentist was wearing clothes and went from one patient’s filling appointment to the next patient’s . I can’t envision regular general dentistry remaining doable, affordable or enjoyable if that was mandated. Yes, we need to sort out how people wait in the waiting room, separate them, have use anti-bacterial gel, and screen out the ones that have symptoms. But I think the way we take care of the back end does not need to be fixed. I would like to get back to work soon before there is more unnecessary suffering.

    Reply
  7. sahl johnhl March 30, 2020

    it is informative if coronavirus spread in dental treatment.

    Reply
  8. A March 30, 2020

    A lot of good points..

    1. I thought the article would be longer — it is, as many have stated, what we do on a regular basis.

    2. The fear the news has produced will change dentistry forever. I think we are one of the more safer places for patients to go to: (1) we wipe down the rooms between patients (has anyone seen a doctor’s office do that — or does that pull out paper on the examination table count; (2) we hardly see sick patients (who wants to go to the dental office when they are sick, hell, they hate coming when they are not in the 1st place) — the news and provincial dental associations NEEDS “to get the message out that standard infection control practices do, and will keep people safe. People should not feel vulnerable to COVID-19 when receiving regular dental care.”

    3. If they start increasing protocols to include gowns for regular dental procedures — that’s just going to be ridiculous. At present, I feel that the sterilization protocols are overkill — we are not surgical offices — are we really the source of infections?

    This is when our provincial dental societies, and CDA needs to step up and helps us!!!

    Reply

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