The diagnosis and prevention of coronavirus disease in dental clinic – a review article

AIM: This review aims to highlight the route of transmission, clinical features, diagnosis, prevention, and protection requirements for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in dental clinics. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This review is built on specific protocol, two independent reviewers, each focused on articles related to COVID-19 and infection control in dental clinics, while the third independent reviewer resolved any conflicting article of interest. RESULTS: Respiratory droplets are the main routes of transmission of COVID-19. The main symptoms are fever, cough, and shortness of breath. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction test on respiratory tract specimens is the most commonly used technique to detect COVID19. Combined nose and throat swabs and rectal swab are recommended to avoid false results. Personal protective equipment and evaluation are essential for every patient before starting any dental treatment, and following the instructions for infection control to avoid the spread of COVID19. In dental office, suspected patient with COVID-19 or presence of symptoms such as losing sense of smell and taste, in these cases dental treatment, must be postponed for 14 days. Evaluation of patient body temperature, screening, and answering questions related to contact COVID19 are crucial to make the decision to start or delay dental treatment to avoid COVID-19. CONCLUSION: Strict infection control procedures should be recommended. Patients recovered recently from COVID-19 may have treatment deferred for 28 days from onset of symptoms to avoid cross-infection. Anti-restrictive valves dental handpieces should be used to avoid cross-infection of COVID-19.

Planning the Restorative Dental Treatment at the Time of Coronavirus Pandemic: A Two-arm Strategy

The high risk of infection with coronavirus forced dental practices to decline/limit oral healthcare services to emergency and urgent conditions. Under this policy, the economic burden on dental professionals and their employees was immense. With the prolonged duration of coronavirus health crisis, it was clear that dentists and associated workers and companies cannot bear the cost of longer suspension of regular dental services. At this point, calls have been made for gradual return to regular dental clinical practice. However, dental health professionals around the world realized that oral care services should be tailored to fit the time of COVID-19 pandemic. An important question to be raised here is regarding planning the dental treatment during the time of coronavirus pandemic. Should a dentist plan the dental treatment in a different way to that at a normal time? This paper aims to propose a simple strategy to plan the restorative dental treatment at the time of coronavirus pandemic. The aim of this strategy is to expand the range of oral care services and minimize the risk of infection with this deadly virus. The role of the shortened dental concept and minimum use of aerosol- /droplet-generating procedures have been emphasized. © 2021 Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. All Rights Reserved.

Systematic review with no meta-analysis of coronavirus COVID-19

AIMS: COVID-19 is a new virus which has spread to most countries in the world. Many papers have been published on the clinical manifestations of this virus. This paper concentrates only on the clinical cases and prognosis of COVID-19 presented in the literature. METHODS: Systematic review is done, and taken into consideration, all published papers in the literature related to COVID-19. Inclusion and exclusion criteria have been applied. RESULTS: Few papers have been determined after many filtrations of all published papers concerning inclusion and exclusion criteria to assess outcome of existing COVID-19. Most published papers or reports did not provide full details for each case. CONCLUSION: Most clinical description data in these reports are so limited and missing some of the critical elements such as the date of infection, source of infection, symptoms, diagnostic criteria, incubation of infection, transmission of infection, number of identified cases after contact with infected patients, and health workers are affected or not by treatment of infected patients, patient age, and type of study. No clear evidence of the treatment plan and the prevention and most data in literature depending on personal experience only which is different from country to others. © 2020 Bassel Tarakji, Faisal Mehsen Alali, Adel Alenzi, Mohammad Zakaria Nassani.