Challenges and Alternatives in Dental Education During the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrative Literature Review

Francisco Cazares De León,María Gabriela Peraldi Sada,María De Lourdes Juanita Cantú Canales,David Ernesto Soto Gámez,Víctor Rafael Rodríguez Castillo,Pedro Gutiérrez Lizardi

doi:10.11144/javeriana.uo39.cade

Abstract

Background: The current COVID-19 pandemic has become a major health challenge and a public health emergency, so it is important to strengthen preventive measures to control its spread. The transmissibility and routes that characterize this virus make it very high risk during dental procedures. For this reason, different organizations and institutions of dental education worldwide have been forced to implement new teaching modalities for dental students to provide a high academic and safe education in clinical practice. Purpose: To examine and analyze different existing publications in relation to dental education, as well as its challenges and alternatives around the COVID-19 disease. Methods: An integrative review of literature on dental education in times of pandemic was carried out. Results: In all continents, countries agree that three key aspects in terms of education must be reinforced are new educational tools, telemedicine, and biosecurity. Conclusion: It is decisive and crucial that dental students and professionals acquire knowledge in matters of health regulations, biosafety, and general aspects of epidemiology, through new forms of teaching, in order to be better prepared to provide the best possible dental care during and after this pandemic.

Highlights

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019
Educational tools The pandemic has had an immediate and dramatic impact on dental education, as institutions face the challenge of reorganizing their infrastructure and teaching strategies [19,20]
On the challenges in dental teaching in universities that have originated as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and that currently affects the entire world in the health, educational, economic, and social fields, it is evident that there is a number of studies, essays, opinion articles, and information in which various opinions are presented based mainly on empirical and theoretical studies regarding this pandemic

Summary

Introduction

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) emerged in the city of Wuhan, China, at the end of December 2019. SARS-CoV-2 uses the ACE2 receptor to enter cells, thereby promoting person-to-person transmission. These cells have been found to be abundant in the respiratory tract and salivary glands of the mouth [3,4]. The current COVID-19 pandemic has become a major health challenge and a public health emergency, so it is important to strengthen preventive measures to control its spread. The transmissibility and routes that characterize this virus make it very high risk during dental procedures For this reason, different organizations and institutions of dental education worldwide have been forced to implement new teaching modalities for dental students to provide a high academic and safe education in clinical practice. Conclusion: It is decisive and crucial that dental students and professionals acquire knowledge in matters of health regulations, biosafety, and general aspects of epidemiology, through new forms of teaching, in order to be better prepared to provide the best possible dental care during and after this pandemic

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Conclusion