1,5,6 The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 7 provides guidance on preparing workplaces for COVID-19 and defines steps to reduce employee exposure. Studies suggest directing airflow through a negative pressure isolation room is a preferred model for protecting healthcare workers during patient care. If emergency dental care is needed for a patient suspected of having COVID-19, treatment should be performed in an isolation room with negative pressure along with using N95 respirator and a full-face shield for technical team and N95 respirator for other persons entering the room. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends postponing annual checkups, elective procedures, surgeries, and nonurgent dental visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. 1 These bacteria and fungi may be directly responsible for transmitting highly infectious diseases, including severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, hepatitis, herpes simplex, and human immunodeficiency virus. Hirschfeld School of Dental Hygiene at ODU and Muge Akpinar-Elci, MD, MPH-professor and chair, School of Community & Environmental Health, and director of the Center for Global Health at ODU-are blogging for Decisions in Dentistry on COVID-19.īy nature, dentists are at high risk of occupational exposure to several types of microorganisms, aerosol particles, and droplets that live in patients’ saliva and blood in addition to instruments contaminated with saliva, blood, and tissue debris. Claiborne, RDH, PhD-assistant professor and graduate program director, Gene W. Sean Banaee, PhD, CIH, CSP-assistant professor and director of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Old Dominion University (ODU) Denise M.
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