Recasting Biomedical Waste Management Strategies during COVID-19 Pandemic in Dental Practice

ABSTRACT

A rise in the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increase in biomedical waste (BMW) all over the globe that leads to the perilous situation. Hence, this review has made an attempt to gather all the guidelines for appropriate BMW management in dental practice during COVID-19 pandemic. The keywords such as Biomedical waste management guidelines, COVID-19, dental waste management, and India were used in the literature search engines such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar along with the various guidelines provided by international, national agencies and verified government websites with a focus on the BMW management in dentistry during COVID-19. The result enumerated that Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, categorizes the bio-medical waste generated from the health-care facility into four categories based on the segregation pathway and color code. These guidelines were reshaped in 2018, 2019, and in 2020 for COVID-19 pandemic. Collection and segregation of biomedical waste separately before handling it to the Common Bio-medical Waste Treatment and Disposal Facility was highly recommended that should be labeled with "COVID-19” both in medical and dental waste management guidelines. This review revealed that BMW management guidelines should be followed by all the health-care fraternities including oral health professionals as they are at a heightened risk of COVID-19, it is vital that they are informed of the most up-to-date protocols for BMW disposal in this pandemic.