Prevention and Infection Control in Dental Practices During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Literature Review

Abstract

Dental practices have a high risk of infected Covid-19 when providing dental and oral health services. The highest infections among all health care professions are dentists, dental assistants, and dental hygienists, because these professions are associated with patients and exposure to salivary secretions and aerosols. To be able to reduce the risk and the transmission of Covid-19 virus in dental practice, it is necessary to prevent and control during the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze control prevention in dental practices during the Covid-19 pandemic. This type of research is a literature review with a qualitative approach through descriptive analysis. The selection of articles according to the specified inclusion and exclusion criteria. The search process for this article was carried out using Google Scholar, Pubmed, DOAJ and Springerlink databases using the keywords infection control, dental practice, and covid-19. The articles obtained from research year 2019 to 2021. From various literatures it is found that prevention efforts can be carried out in several ways, including through the application of triage to patients, patient management, use of personal protective equipment for dentists and clinical staff, and management of the practice environment.