Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 May;32(4):181-186.
doi: 10.1016/j.sdentj.2020.04.001. Epub 2020 Apr 7.

Guidelines for dental care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ali Alharbi  1 , Saad Alharbi  2 , Shahad Alqaidi  2
Affiliations

Guidelines for dental care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ali Alharbi et al. Saudi Dent J. 2020 May.

Abstract

Since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak was declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020. Several dental care facilities in affected countries have been completely closed or have been only providing minimal treatment for emergency cases. However, several facilities in some affected countries are still providing regular dental treatment. This can in part be a result of the lack of universal protocol or guidelines regulating the dental care provision during such a pandemic. This lack of guidelines can on one hand increase the nosocomial COVID-19 spread through dental health care facilities, and on the other hand deprive patients' in need of the required urgent dental care. Moreover, ceasing dental care provision during such a period will incense the burden on hospitals emergency departments already struggle with the pandemic. This work aimed to develop guidelines for dental patients' management during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Guidelines for dental care provision during the COVID-19 pandemic were developed after considering the nature of COVID-19 pandemic, and were based on grouping the patients according to condition and need, and considering the procedures according to risk and benefit. It is hoped that the guidelines proposed in this work will help in the management of dental care around the world during and after this COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Dental Care; Guideline Development; Pandemic; SARS-CoV-2.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Flowchart showing the dental patients screening and categorisation method during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the categorisation method of the affected patients after the pandemic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Bai Y., Yao L., Wei T., Tian F., Jin D.Y., Chen L., Wang M. Presumed asymptomatic carrier transmission of COVID-19. JAMA – J. Am. Med. Assoc. 2020 doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.2565. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barzon L., Pacenti M., Berto A., Sinigaglia A., Franchin E., Lavezzo E., Brugnaro P., Palù G. Isolation of infectious zika virus from saliva and prolonged viral RNA shedding in a traveller returning from the dominican republic to Italy, January 2016. Eurosurveillance. 2016 doi: 10.2807/1560-7917. - DOI - PubMed
    1. CDA, 2020. Dental Office Closure Due to COVID-19 [WWW Document]. https://www.cda.org/Portals/0/cda-covid19-dental-office-closure.pdf.
    1. Chen D., Xu W., Lei Z., Huang Z., Liu J., Gao Z., Peng L. Recurrence of positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA in COVID-19: a case report. J. Infect. Dis. Int. 2020 doi: 10.1016/j.ijid.2020.03.003. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen H., Guo J., Wang C., Luo F., Yu X., Zhang W., Li J., Zhao D., Xu D., Gong Q., Liao J., Yang H., Hou W., Zhang Y. Clinical characteristics and intrauterine vertical transmission potential of COVID-19 infection in nine pregnant women: a retrospective review of medical records. Lancet. 2020;395:809–815. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30360-3. - DOI - PMC - PubMed