Dentistry in covid-19 pandemic: Emerging and upcoming challenges

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which originated in Wuhan, China, has become a major public health challenge for all countries around the world. The World Health Organization stated that the epidemic of the novel coronavirus has characterized a public health crisis of international concern. Infection control methods are compulsory to inhibit the virus from further spreading and to help manage the epidemic state. The dental office is not exclusion for the risk of transmitting and acquiring the infection between staff or persons; in fact, the dental office/hospital could be a riskier setting for distribution of virus as there is close contact with patients owing to the nature of most forms of dental treatment. Therefore, dental settings are at high risk of cross-infection between dental professionals and patients.