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

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 transmission through fomites on inanimate objects various waiting area changes must be ensured. Air conditioners can be used in well-serviced conditions with due care given to ventilation of the operatory after each patient. Strict disinfection protocols and personal protective equipment for dentist safety are mandatory.

Genetic engineering and dental caries.

Dental caries, a multifactorial disease requires four principle factor: the host, the microflora, the substrate & time for its occurrence and can be prevented or managed by elimination/modification of either of the above factors. The conventional preventive measure being followed for long time for the dental caries are not successful to the desirable extent due to their non avaibailaballity in the rural areas, lack of awareness & inaccessibility of dental services. Therefore, the focus has now been shifted to submicroscopic level to ensure that these measures can be reached to the farthest areas & each & every member of the population is benefitted. Few of the measures taken are. i) Genetically modifying the S. Mutans: ii) Searching The antagonist peptides to work against the specific enzyme system (Glucosyltransferase) of S. Mutans. iii) Changing the oral environment by those Genetically modified organisms that will produce bases (instead of acids) & these bases provides a milieu favoring remineralization. This paper discusses various ways in which genetically modified strains of microogranisms or genetically modified strains of microogranisms of genetically modified foods can help in the prevention of caries.