Long-term adverse events of three COVID-19 vaccines as reported by vaccinated physicians and dentists, a study from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Assessment of safety of COVID-19 vaccines is an ongoing process. This study aims to explore long-term adverse events reported by physicians and dentists who received at least two COVID-19 vaccine doses. A group of physicians and dentists were invited to complete a validated questionnaire that was composed of items on: socio-demographics, medical history, administered vaccines, and long-term adverse events (LTAE). Data of a total of 498 practitioners were included. Age ranged from 22 to 71 years (mean age= 35.75 ± 11.74) with a female majority (N = 348, 69.9%). The most frequently administered vaccines were Pfizer-BioNtech, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines. A total of 80 (16.0%) participants reported LTAEs which were mainly fatigue, menstrual disturbances, myalgia, arthralgia, dizziness, and headache (N = 32, 15, 8, 6, 4, and 4, respectively). There was no statistically significant association between LTAEs and: age, gender, or medical history (P > .05). The collective symptoms of fatigue, myalgia, arthralgia, dizziness, and headache were significantly associated with Sinopharm vaccine (P = .04). This was further confirmed by general linear multivariate model analysis. Less than 20% of COVID-19 vaccine recipients may complain of LTAEs that are mostly fatigue-related. It seems that factors such as age, gender, and medical status play a negligible role in development of these AEs. On the other hand, Sinopharm vaccine showed the highest significant association with these AEs followed by AstraZeneca vaccine.

COVID-19: Present and Future Challenges for Dental Practice.

COVID-19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, with a high fatality rate that may reach 8%. The disease is caused by SARS-CoV-2 which is one of the coronaviruses. Realizing the severity of outcomes associated with this disease and its high rate of transmission, dentists were instructed by regulatory authorities, such as the American Dental Association, to stop providing treatment to dental patients except those who have emergency complaints. This was mainly for protection of dental healthcare personnel, their families, contacts, and their patients from the transmission of virus, and also to preserve the much-needed supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE). Dentists at all times should competently follow cross-infection control protocols, but particularly during this critical time, they should do their best to decide on the emergency cases that are indicated for dental treatment. Dentists should also be updated on how this pandemic is related to their profession in order to be well oriented and prepared. This overview will address several issues concerned with the COVID-19 pandemic that directly relate to dental practice in terms of prevention, treatment, and orofacial clinical manifestations.

Jaw-related complications in COVID-19 patients; a systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this review was to highlight jaw-related complications in COVID-19 manifestations, their etiology, and prevention methods. METHODS: A systematic review of literature was conducted. MEDLINE/PubMed, and Google Scholar were searched for the following keywords: "COVID-19" "Oral manifestations", "Musculoskeletal patients", "Mandible", "Jaw", "Osteonecrosis", "MRONJ", and "dry socket". RESULTS: Only nine articles were included in this review. Jaw-related disorders associated with COVID-19 were dry socket, osteonecrosis, and orofacial pain related to temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) and giant cell arteritis (GCA). CONCLUSION: COVID-19 potentially predisposes to osteonecrosis due to thrombotic inflammatory phenomena caused by the disease itself or its therapeutic modalities. All jaw osteonecrosis cases reported so far in relation to COVID-19 affected the upper jaw. Orofacial pain in COVID-19 patients was related to TMD and GCA. Clinical evidence-based studies are required to investigate the actual prevalence and possible correlation between COVID-19 and jaw-related disorders.

Factors Influencing Global Variations in COVID-19 Cases and Fatalities; A Review.

Since the first cases of the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) were diagnosed in China, outcomes associated with this infection in terms of total numbers of cases and deaths have varied widely between countries. While some countries had minimal rates of infections and deaths, other countries were hit hard by the pandemic. Countries with highest numbers of cases continued to change over time, but at the time of submission of this article they are: USA, Brazil, Russia, UK, India, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile. This is in contrary to many countries in the Middle East, Far East, and Africa, which had lower cases or deaths/cases rates. This raised many questions pertaining to this variation. This overview explores the potential factors that contribute to spread, transmission and outcomes of the COVID-19 infection. It also uses an evidence-based approach in reviewing the available most recent literature that tackled the various factors that modify the populations' response to COVID-19, namely, factors pertaining to population characteristics, environmental and geographic factors.

Long-Term Complications of Coronavirus Disease 2019; What the Oral Surgeon Needs To Know.

ABSTRACT: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 manifests mainly as respiratory symptoms. Extrapulmonary manifestations have also been detected and several vital organs may sustain irreversible or long-standing damage. These extrapulmonary manifestations can be detected in cardiovascular, hepatic, renal, and hematologic systems. Maxillofacial surgeons may encounter patients who have recovered from COVID-19 but are still suffering long-term morbidities as a result of this incompletely understood infection. Consequently, they have to be aware of the various systemic complications that may be encountered in these patients as they may interfere with their treatment plan or may necessitate certain modifications and precautions.In this report the authors present the long-standing systemic complications of COVID-19 reported so far, and discuss their implications within the context of maxillofacial surgery with regards to the modifications and precautions in the process of treatment planning.Graphical abstract shows the long-term complications of COVID-19 that may complicate maxillofacial surgical procedures.

Side Effects Reported by Jordanian Healthcare Workers Who Received COVID-19 Vaccines.

Background Distribution of COVID-19 vaccines has been surrounded by suspicions and rumors making it necessary to provide the public with accurate reports from trustworthy experts such as healthcare professionals. Methods We distributed a questionnaire in Jordan among physicians, dentists and nurses who received a COVID-19 vaccine to explore the side effects (SE) they encountered after the first or the second dose of one of three vaccines namely: AstraZeneca Vaxzevria (AZ), Pfizer-BioNTeck (PB), and SinoPharm (SP) vaccines. Results A total of 409 professionals participated. Approximately 18% and 31% of participants reported no SE after the first dose and second dose, respectively. The remainder had mostly local side effects related to injection site (74%). Systemic side effects in the form of fatigue (52%), myalgia (44%), headache (42%), and fever (35%) prevailed mainly after the first dose. These were significantly associated with AZ vaccine, and age ≤ 45 years (p = 0.000 and 0.01, respectively). No serious SE were reported. Conclusions We can conclude that SE of COVID-19 vaccines distributed in Jordan are within the common range known so far for these vaccines. Further studies are needed to include larger sample size and longer follow-up period to monitor possible serious and long-term SE of the vaccines.

Utilization of Teledentistry in Antimicrobial Prescribing and Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases during COVID-19 Lockdown.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to analyze Jordanian dentists' inquiries on oral infections and antimicrobial prescribing using dental professional WhatsApp groups during coronavirus disease lockdown period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Three professional WhatsApp groups of Jordanian dentists were reviewed and analyzed for inquiries posted during the period from January to May 2020. Inquiries were sent from patients to their dentists who posted these inquiries to the professional WhatsApp dental groups for consultation and professional advice. All queries regarding oral infections and antimicrobial prescribing were extracted and analyzed. RESULTS: Three WhatsApp professional groups with a total numbers of members of 750 dentists who posted queries about their patients were included in this study. Dentist members posted queries about their patients to these professional WhatsApp groups. There was a total of 32 inquiries regarding oral lesions and 11 consultations regarding prescribing and dental management of medically compromised patients giving a total of 43 consultations. Among which there were 19 inquiries on oral infections and 9 inquiries on antimicrobial prescribing giving a total of 28 consultations. Most common inquiries were on bacterial infections (localized dentoalveolar abscess, pericoronitis, cellulitis, and lymphoid hyperplasia of the tongue), viral herpetic infections, and Candida infections (erythematous and pseudomembranous candidiasis). CONCLUSIONS: Many dental practitioners cannot distinguish the correct diagnostic features of oral infections particularly viral and fungal infections. Continuing education should be considered to focus on clinical manifestations of various oral infections. Further, educational activities that focus on variations in treatment protocols for various infections should be introduced particularly those that concern indications for antimicrobial prescribing.

Factors Influencing Global Variations in COVID-19 Cases and Fatalities;A Review

Since the first cases of the novel corona virus disease (COVID-19) were diagnosed in China, outcomes associated with this infection in terms of total numbers of cases and deaths have varied widely between countries. While some countries had minimal rates of infections and deaths, other countries were hit hard by the pandemic. Countries with highest numbers of cases continued to change over time, but at the time of submission of this article they are: USA, Brazil, Russia, UK, India, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile. This is in contrary to many countries in the Middle East, Far East, and Africa, which had lower cases or deaths/cases rates. This raised many questions pertaining to this variation. This overview explores the potential factors that contribute to spread, transmission and outcomes of the COVID-19 infection. It also uses an evidence-based approach in reviewing the available most recent literature that tackled the various factors that modify the populations"response to COVID-19, namely, factors pertaining to population characteristics, environmental and geographic factors.