Dentistry and Risk Management – A Challenging Balance in an Era of COVID-19

Abstract

The novel severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2) originated in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China, in December 2019, and due to its rapid spread rate, the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic and a public health emergency of international concern. The transmission of any infection in a dental office can occur while coming in direct contact with body fluids of an infected patient, environmental surfaces or contaminated dental instruments, or from the infectious particles that have become airborne. Even though the main source of transmission are the patients showing symptoms of COVID-19, recently, asymptomatic patients and patients in their incubation period are reported to be also the carriers of SARS-CoV-2, thereby increasing the risk of spread to close contacts and health-care workers. Because any patient could be a potential asymptomatic COVID-19 carrier, it is advisable to perform tele-screening of all the patients reporting to the clinic. As the transmission of 2019-nCoV via droplets and aerosol is of grave concern, as despite all the precautions taken, it is almost impossible to reduce droplet and aerosol production to zero during dental procedures, hence it is wise that the dental health professionals should not be dependent on any single infection control strategy.