Relations between Dentistry and COVID-19 Infections
Abstract
As a result of the virus's global dissemination, novel COVID-19 infections have emerged as a significant obstacle for all healthcare professionals to overcome. Dental specialist plays an effective role in the prevention of coronavirus. Dental care units and settings face various problems relating to the transmission of disease during treatment and dental operations. Blood, saliva, and mixed water droplets possessing the virus cause contamination of equipment used for dental treatment. Both patients and workers may become transmitters and infectors of COVID-19 through direct contact during dental operations. Both dental workers and patients are likely to become infectors and transmitters of COVID-19. The dental care routine is very effective as we discussed below the prevention steps are very effective. All healthcare workers at the dentistry clinics, including nurses, should collaborate to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus among patients.
1. Introduction
The spread of COVID-19 started in 2019 December and after that, the prevalence of this disease occurred all around the world in 2020. COVID-19 is a viral infection that affects all ages. The highest risk of serious infections occurred in people with weakened immune systems [1, 2]. An International Committee of viruses and taxonomy gave this viral infection name known as “coronavirus” [3, 4, 5]. Mostly the sign and symptoms vary from the kind of coronavirus but usually include fatigue, myalgia, cough, and fever after performing the scan computed tomography of the chest showed abnormality and opacities were reported [6]. Hemoptysis, diarrhea, sputum, and headache less commonly appear in patients [7, 8]. The spread and transmission of the coronavirus are high as compared to short acute respiratory syndrome [9]. The spread of this infection also occurs to each other after contact [10]. The disorder related to gustatory and olfactory is also observed in Europe [11]. So, defect in taste, sense, smell, cutaneous lesions, and oral manifestation show an association with coronavirus [12, 13, 14, 15]. The chances of coronavirus increase in various diseases [15, 16, 17, 18]. From the related papers and research, it was concluded that first the occurrence of this infection starts from bats and then it has seen in pangolins, dogs, and snakes [19, 20, 21]. The purpose of this discussion is to find out the relationship between dental services and their impact on the transmission of COVID-19.
2. Potential routes for COVID-19 transmission:
From previous research, it was confirmed that the spread of this virus usually occurs through inhalation, sneezing, and coughing because this virus transmits with micro-droplets that infect the person by doing its activities [22]. The transmission of this virus also happens through the nasal, oral, and mucous membranes of the eye [23]. The spread of this infection is usually not limited to the respiratory tract, but it affects other organs also [24]. The spread of this virus also occurs through contaminated aerosol. For the confirmation of the virus infection usually perform PCR that confirms whether the patient is affected or not [25].
3. COVID-19and its influence on dentistry:
The conclusion made from all the discussions is usually the prevalence of novel infections seen through the respiratory and droplets [26]. The period of this virus changes from 7 to 24 days usually during this period no proper sign appears [27]. The chances and risk factors increase for the doctor and patient who visit the dentist because usually the spread of this virus orally and through the respiratory tract. The dental teams face more problems and are more prone to develop this infection because of their communication with a face. During the practice of dentistry, the chances of infection increase by using rotary sharp and high-speed instruments, body fluid, blood, and saliva cause frequent contamination. This infection usually spread during long surgery because infection spread through airborne inhalation [28, 29, 30]. The world health organization announced in the New York Times Magazine that the infection of the coronavirus is more prone to healthcare professionals [31]. American Dental Association (ADA) announced that the transmission of coronavirus infection increased in the United States, so the society of dentists decided to limit their dental care and use only during the emergency condition [19, 32]. The dental emergency occurs when doctors are allowed to perform dental care for a patient [33, 34] during uncontrolled and severe pain, recurrent infection, permanent tooth avulsed, or trauma. General Dental Council (GDC) in the United Kingdom also recommended many prescriptions and guidelines because the priority and safety of patients are more important than anything [35]. (Table 1).
4. Role of Dentists to control the COVID-19 infection:
The main role of dental health care professionals to overcome this viral infection is that they screen the patient which visited them after screening they can identify the patients who suffer from this infection. so, after the identification of the virus, the infected patient unnecessarily to do dental care cure during the early infectious stage, by doing some encouragement can manage this infection. So, when patients visit the dental clinic, first take their temperature. The most common symptoms of coronavirus infections are cough, fever, and breathing problems. They also need proper history and their gathering with participation records if they attend any meeting. Self-isolation is a good preventive step to reduce the chances of coronavirus transmission. Hand hygiene [37], personal protection [38], rinsing of mouth [39, 40], rubber dam isolation [41, 42], safety clothes usage (Personal Protective Equipment), strict disinfecting control, and management of waste are effective and easily controlled methods.
5. Conclusions and recommendations
The management and cure of dental problems are required to understand the spread and prevalence of the coronavirus. Many updating requires for this purpose. Many approaches and techniques require understanding the role of dentistry in the transmission of infection, which is very helpful for this purpose to reduce the chances of infections. The dental health care teams should be vigilant and keep patients and themselves in a safe environment according to the related guidelines. However, all members of the dental team have a professional responsibility on themselves to keep informed of updates as recommendations are changing so quickly.
Nurses who work in dentistry clinics should work as infection control officers and put great effort to minimize the route of transmission of infection of COVID-19 by ensuring strict application of the sterilization policy of equipment in the clinics after each use and between a patient and another, ensuring proper sealing of equipment, cleaning and disinfection of the dental chair after being used by a client, and reminding and ensuring proper use of personal protective equipment and universal precautions by the dentistry to break the chain of COVID-19 transmission and any other infection.
Supplementary Materials: Not applicable.
Author Contributions: MA is the corresponding author of the study, AS conceived and designed the study. AR performed resources gathering, UL and RZ drafted the paper, MTK reviewed the manuscript, GS did statistical analysis, MAS performed editing and submission of the manuscript. All authors provided input regarding the manuscript and approved the final version.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Data Availability Statement: Not applicable.
Acknowledgments: Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest in this review study.
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