How can we prevent the transmission of COVID-19 when going to the dentist?
Catherine Volgant, Ilona Persoon and Hans de Soet (ACTA) inventoried the current situation and wrote an overview article with recommendations for dental practices.
Not everyone who is infected with the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus is symptomatic. And while symptoms can be severe in some individuals, in others they may be very mild. You can carry the virus and transmit it to others without noticing any symptoms at all. Thus, to minimise the risk of transmission, every patient who visits a dental clinic has to be assumed to be infected.
SARS-CoV-2 is excreted through the saliva in the mouth and spreads via aerosols. These aerosols are produced during almost all dental treatments, such as drilling, air blowing and plaque removal.
The greatest risk of contamination in a dental practice is through droplets and aerosols. In almost all cases, practitioner and patient are within 1.5 metres of each other. Good ventilation reduces the number of airborne bacteria and viruses.
In addition, the virus can be transmitted via surfaces. It has not yet been established how long virus particles on a surface remain infectious. Any surfaces on which an aerosol has landed or that a patient has touched need to be treated as potentially contaminated.
To help bring an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, proper application of infection control measures in dental practices is essential.