COVID-19 Management in Clinical Dental Care Part II: Personal Protective Equipment for the Dental Care Professional.


Journal

International dental journal
ISSN: 1875-595X
Titre abrégé: Int Dent J
Pays: England
ID NLM: 0374714

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
Jun 2021
Historique:
pubmed: 4 2 2021
medline: 26 5 2021
entrez: 3 2 2021
Statut: ppublish

Résumé

Facing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) challenge on a global level, dental care professionals are encouraged to optimize universal precautions and adopt measures that ensure protection against infection by contaminated aerosols and droplets. Although aerosol transmission is possible, direct contact through large droplets is probably responsible for the vast majority of transmissions. This paper is the second of a series of 3 on the management of COVID-19 in clinical dental care settings and aims to describe the selection and use of personal protection equipment (PPE) by dental care professionals (DCP), with consideration of the level of risk associated with the planned procedures. PPE selection depends directly on the local epidemiological setting, the patient's characteristics, and the level of risk of the planned procedures. The procedures performed in the office environment are classified as low-, moderate-, or high-risk. Moderate risk includes 2 further sublevels associated with the cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization of materials for clinical procedures that do not generate aerosols. The training of DCP on how to properly don (put on) and doff (remove) PPE is as important as choosing the appropriate PPE because it can be associated with a risk of infection. When there is limited availability of PPE, measures should be adjusted to the risk associated with the intervention. Assuming that an effective COVID-19 vaccine will be developed, once it becomes widely available for DCP, PPE requirements will likely be different. The proper use of PPE, together with the adoption of other operational procedures, can provide effective protection against microorganisms being transmitted via body fluids or in the air.

Sections du résumé

BACKGROUND BACKGROUND
Facing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) challenge on a global level, dental care professionals are encouraged to optimize universal precautions and adopt measures that ensure protection against infection by contaminated aerosols and droplets. Although aerosol transmission is possible, direct contact through large droplets is probably responsible for the vast majority of transmissions.
METHODS METHODS
This paper is the second of a series of 3 on the management of COVID-19 in clinical dental care settings and aims to describe the selection and use of personal protection equipment (PPE) by dental care professionals (DCP), with consideration of the level of risk associated with the planned procedures. PPE selection depends directly on the local epidemiological setting, the patient's characteristics, and the level of risk of the planned procedures. The procedures performed in the office environment are classified as low-, moderate-, or high-risk. Moderate risk includes 2 further sublevels associated with the cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization of materials for clinical procedures that do not generate aerosols. The training of DCP on how to properly don (put on) and doff (remove) PPE is as important as choosing the appropriate PPE because it can be associated with a risk of infection.
DISCUSSION CONCLUSIONS
When there is limited availability of PPE, measures should be adjusted to the risk associated with the intervention. Assuming that an effective COVID-19 vaccine will be developed, once it becomes widely available for DCP, PPE requirements will likely be different.
CONCLUSION CONCLUSIONS
The proper use of PPE, together with the adoption of other operational procedures, can provide effective protection against microorganisms being transmitted via body fluids or in the air.

Identifiants

pubmed: 33531145
pii: S0020-6539(21)00007-1
doi: 10.1016/j.identj.2021.01.007
pmc: PMC7834330
pii:
doi:

Substances chimiques

COVID-19 Vaccines 0

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

IM

Pagination

263-270

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Conflict of interest None disclosed.

Auteurs

Paulo Melo (P)

EpiUnit, Faculty of Dental Medicine, Institute of Public Health, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Electronic address: paulomelopt@gmail.com.

Américo Afonso (A)

Faculty of Dental Medicine, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal.

Luis Monteiro (L)

Medicine and Oral Surgery Department, University Institute of Health Sciences, Gandra, Portugal.

Otilia Lopes (O)

Department of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University Fernando Pessoa, Porto, Portugal.

Ricardo Castro Alves (RC)

Clinical Research Unit - Centro de Investigação Interdisciplinar Egas Moniz, M. Caparica, Portugal.

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Classifications MeSH