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.

Why do Women avoid Dental Visits During Pregnancy? A Cross- Sectional Survey in Al Madinah, Western Saudi Arabia

Objective: To investigate why women avoid dental visits during pregnancy and to explore the possible association between this attitude and relevant socio-demographic factors. Material and Methods: An online questionnaire was distributed to pregnant women during their routine visits to antenatal clinics in Al Madinah, Saudi Arabia. The questionnaire explored socio-demographic factors of age, education, employment status and nationality. It also explored misconceptions/ reasons for avoiding dental visits during pregnancy. Results: A total of 360 pregnant women participated, and their mean age was 30.08 years (range=18-52 years, SD=5.96). The most commonly cited misconception/reason for avoiding dental visits was "local anesthesia is not safe during pregnancy", followed by "transportation is difficult" and lastly, "dental treatment is not safe during pregnancy", (43.6%, 37.5%, 18.9%, respectively). Illiterate participants were statistically significantly associated with the misconception of "unsafe dental treatment during pregnancy" (p=0.002), whereas school-level and unemployed participants were statistically significantly associated with the misconception of "unsafe local anesthesia during pregnancy" (p=0.02, p=0.036 respectively). Conclusion: Pregnant women avoid dental visits mainly due to the misconception that local anesthesia is not safe during pregnancy. Difficult transportation seems to be another important deterrent in preventing pregnant women to visit dentists in this geographic area. Changing the misconceptions should be the starting point in addressing this public health problem and this should involve the three parties involved: pregnant women, oral healthcare providers and obstetric care providers.

Willingness of Jordanian clinicians to treat a hepatitis B-infected patient.

OBJECTIVE: In the past, clinicians have sometimes been unwilling to provide care to patients known to be infected with hepatitis B virus (HBV). However, this lack of patient care should have lessened following the introduction of effective HBV vaccination for health care workers. The purpose of this study was to determine the willingness of clinicians in Jordan to provide care to HBV-infected patients. METHOD AND MATERIALS: A total of 290 general dental practices were randomly selected and surveyed for their willingness to provide treatment for toothache and routine dental care of individuals infected with HBV. RESULTS: Only 45% of the dental practices were willing to provide care to a person infected with HBV. The unwillingness to provide treatment did not seem to be influenced by financial factors. CONCLUSION: HBV-infected individuals will have difficulty obtaining dental health care in Jordan. There is a need for dental heath care workers in Jordan to be better informed and/or provide more effective treatment of HBV-infected individuals.