The Novel Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19) outbreak, also known as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2, led to frequent production of aerosols worldwide, resulting in leaving dental care professionals in a high-risk infection group. The covid infection spreads through saliva and respiratory fluids, making the pediatric dentist Dublin Ohio, more sensitive and prone to the pandemic. The dentist’s practice requires the proximity of doctors with their patients. It involves handpieces and scalers, which generate aerosols along with the generation of saliva, respiratory fluids, water, blood-droplets, and various dangerous microorganisms that may be contacted to the professional during the treatment.
Covid affecting life
During the pandemic outbreak, there were not enough shreds of evidence to believe that the virus causes equally extreme risks to the pediatric dentists as it does to any other field of the medical world. Hence, no one forms any standard procedures due to this dilemma and lack of information and knowledge. Moreover, the amount of research done till that point of time suggested that the use of handpieces and ultrasonic instruments will cause their secretions to spread and aerosolize the surroundings, thus making it nearly impossible to curb the transmission of virus because of its self-delivering quality through eyes and nose into the human body.
Due to this unpredictable nature of the pandemic towards dental health, the pediatric dentists had to suffer huge economic loss as both the professional and patients were unclear how and what safety measures you should practice. Many children who were at a sensitive time of their dental care development have not seen their dentists for like over a year now, which will ultimately result in increased complications of their oral health and might also be left untreated. Students are already resuming their studies in a very strained atmosphere, and increase oral care issues will make it more difficult for them to stand up among their peers, especially to the pupils belonging to low-income families.
Dentists and Covid
DHCP (dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, and receptionists) were recommended to avoid aerosol-generating instruments rather than switch to hand instruments like spoon excavators, chemo-mechanical caries, remove agents, etc. Moreover, if the aerosol-generating procedures necessarily need to be performed, then they must be executed as the last work or appointment of the day. The 8 o’clock working positions are not used as much as possible to avoid splatter. The constant use of a rubber dam while working on such procedures is strongly recommended. It possesses the quality of significantly reducing airborne particles in approximately three-foot diameter of the operational field by 70%, hence lowering the risk of virus transmission to a very great extent. Also, to use four-handed dentistry, high volume suction for aerosols should be implemented in addition to regular suction.
Final Words
It is a very pertinent fact that the occupational risk of transmission of covid-19 in pediatric dentists was very high, especially because a maximum number of patients are children. Pediatric Professionals and their staff are vulnerable because they often manage and deal with dental emergencies, trauma and conduct long-term treatments. And the most complicated aspect is that the impact of the virus on pediatric dentistry and practice is yet to be fully known to the world.