Author: Halepas S, Ferneini EM
Source: Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery
Year: 2020
Comment:
Abstract / Excerpt:
We live in an increasingly globalized and transnational world. With modern advances in travel, humans move around today more than in any previous generation. Although this has tremendous benefits in cultural and societal advancements, it also creates great liability in epidemiology because modern outbreaks have no borders and cross all levels of society, regardless of race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has ushered in unprecedented times. Because the average infected person will spread the disease to 2 or 3 others, its spread has been exponential. A large number of health care workers who died in China in the early days of this disease were ear, nose, and throat physicians and ophthalmologists. This was possibly due to the high viral shed from the nasal cavity. In Wuhan, 14 people became infected after performance of an endoscopic pituitary surgery on a single COVID-19 patient. SARS-CoV-2 has been demonstrated to remain aerosolized for 3 hours after contamination and on plastics and stainless steel for up to 72 hours. This makes the dental community a relatively high-risk population.
Citation: Halepas S, Ferneini EM. A Pinch of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure: Proactive Dentistry in the Wake of COVID-19. Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 2020;78(6):860-1.