Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 and Dentistry: A Summative Review of Guidelines issued by National Health Authorities

Gyanendra Kumar, Neeraj Gugnani, Dina Rabea, Ruba Odeh, Ferah Rehman, Rihab MabroukJournal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry 2021 39(2):120-131 COVID-19 was first reported in China, in November 2019 and since then the spread of this disease was so rapid that on March 11, 2020, it was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. Due to the high transmissibility of the COVID virus and the associated morbidity and mortality, various International and National health authorities released different guidelines for day-to-day living, laying down “new norms” which has impacted our lives enormously. Although these guidelines seem to be convoluted but owing to some differences in the guidelines, it raises an ambiguity in the minds of dentists. Hence, we felt the need of this review to summarize different guidelines issued by various National health authorities for catering emergency and routine dental care. We included guidelines from CDC, ADA, NHS, India, UAE, Egypt, and Tunisia and compared and consolidated to reach a consensus that teledentistry is a good alternative to face-to-face management for nonemergency patients. Triage should be done for all patients coming to the health-care facility. Temperature and other vital parameters should be recorded in our daily practice. Antibacterial mouth rinses before the dental procedure can reduce the microbial load and therefore can alleviate transmission. To reduce indirect transmi...
Source: Journal of Indian Society of Pedodontics and Preventive Dentistry - Category: Dentistry Authors: Source Type: research