March 25, 2020 | News

MUMBAI, India: Dental colleges in India are currently closed, and dental clinics across the country have been advised to suspend all non-essential treatment. Both of these measures are in effect until at least 31 March. The latest advice from the Indian Dental Association (IDA) to dental practitioners is to exercise caution and make well-informed decisions about patient care and in the operation of their dental practices.

March 25, 2020 | News

SINGAPORE: Originally, the 11th International Dental Exhibition and Meeting (IDEM) was scheduled to take place in April 2020 and was then moved to 19–21 June to ensure attendees’ health and safety during the COVID-19 crisis. However, now that the outbreak has become a pandemic and the situation is not expected to stabilise in time for the show, the event organisers have decided to move IDEM 2020 online.

March 24, 2020 | Events

ZURICH, Switzerland: After careful consideration and monitoring of the ongoing spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2, Nobel Biocare has decided to postpone its 2020 Global Symposium, which was originally scheduled for 16–18 April in Las Vegas in the US. The symposium is now scheduled for early 2021. The company will communicate the new date and location as soon as details are available.

March 24, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: After closely monitoring the situation and working with various authorities regarding the current coronavirus pandemic and its effect on event postponements and cancellations, the organisers of the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show (BDCDS) 2020 have announced that they have decided to postpone the event to 11–12 September 2020. It had been scheduled to take place on 15–16 May.

March 23, 2020 | News

CHICAGO, U.S.: The American Dental Association (ADA) has recommended that dentists in all U.S. states postpone elective procedures for the next three weeks, effective from March 16, in order to combat the spread of the virus SARS-CoV-2. Similar calls have been made by state-level dental associations, and the California Dental Association (CDA) has given advice to its members on what “shelter-in-place” self-isolation orders mean for them and their practices.

March 20, 2020 | News

LONDON, UK: The British Dental Association (BDA) and the Irish Dental Association (IDA) have both recently criticised their respective governments for the lack of direction and action regarding the COVID-19 crisis. Both organisations have said that dentists have been left in the dark about how to proceed and that the impact of this could be significant.

March 20, 2020 | News

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in dental practices across Canada being told to delay elective and preventive treatments, and the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) has told Dental Tribune International that the situation remains fluid. While some dental practices remain open, the CDA says that this could change at any moment, based on, but not limited to, the directives and recommendations that are being issued by provincial dental regulatory authorities.

March 19, 2020 | News

WUHAN, China: The COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, has become a serious public health challenge of international concern. Researchers from Wuhan University School and Hospital of Stomatology have now released a paper which includes a number of recommendations for dental practitioners and dental students on how to deal with the virus SARS-CoV-2 that poses emerging and future challenges for dentistry.

March 19, 2020 | News

SYDNEY, Australia: Though their geographic distance from Europe and Asia has proved to be somewhat of an advantage in controlling SARS-CoV-2, both Australia and New Zealand have experienced a substantial rise in COVID-19 cases in recent days. The pandemic’s growing presence has caused health and dental bodies from each nation to issue guidance for dental professionals so that the virus’s transmission can be minimised.

March 18, 2020 | News

LEIPZIG, Germany: According to the Australian Dental Association (ADA), it could be a year before a successful vaccine to treat the coronavirus becomes widely available to the public. In the meantime, dental professionals are advised to control the spread of the virus by using face masks. However, as the outbreak reaches the tipping point, personal protective equipment supplies, especially of surgical masks, are at critically low levels. In a call to action, dental and health organisations have recently urged the federal government to boost mask supplies in order to prevent possible dental practice closures and protect healthcare workers from being infected and infecting others.

March 18, 2020 | News

NEW YORK, U.S.: The World Health Organization has declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic, and travel from Europe to the US has been suspended for the next 30 days. Consequently, a decision has been taken to postpone the Oral Reconstruction Global Symposium to 2021.

March 17, 2020 | News

BRUSSELS, Belgium: As concern about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic reaches new levels around the world, the European Union has taken measures to safeguard personal protective equipment. In a press release, the EU stated that exports of equipment such as face masks and protective spectacles and visors outside of the EU would be subject to export authorisation by member states.

March 17, 2020 | News

SHENLEY, UK: Last week, the public learned that a British national had died of COVID-19 on 11 March 2020 in Bali in Indonesia. Shortly afterwards, it became known that the deceased person was Kimberly Finlayson, co-founder of Finlayson Media Communications (FMC), the UK’s biggest independent dental publisher.

March 16, 2020 | News

CHICAGO, U.S./LONDON, U.K.: A growing number of consumers are opting for remote orthodontic treatment, and it is likely that such services will continue to be available to them. While dental associations on both sides of the Atlantic may not fully support the practice, they are now seeking to clarify how it can be provided to patients safely. In the U.S., examples of generic regulations for teledentistry have been issued by the American Association of Dental Boards (AADB). The General Dental Council in the U.K. has asked service providers to confirm what procedures they are following and how its registrants may be involved.

March 12, 2020 | Events

SINGAPORE: After three years of planning and preparation, the organiser of the ITI World Symposium 2020, which was scheduled to take place on 14–16 May, has postponed the event to 1–3 September 2021. The decision was made in light of the rapid global escalation of COVID-19 cases with the subsequent travel and other restrictions being imposed, which would probably have rendered it impossible to hold a large-scale meeting with international attendance this year, the International Team for Implantology (ITI) stated.

March 11, 2020 | Events

MARRAKECH, Morocco: This week, MIS Implants Technologies announced that the company had decided to reschedule its global conference in Marrakech in order to avoid jeopardising the health and safety of attendees and team members. The conference will now be held from 8 to 11 October. The event was planned to take place from 14 to 17 May; however, global health concerns about the coronavirus crisis have led to the change.

March 10, 2020 | News

LEIPZIG, Germany: Months after it was first detected in Wuhan, one of China’s largest cities, the effects of the ongoing coronavirus (since named SARS-CoV-2) outbreak are increasingly being felt across the globe. By 10 March 2020, 114,567 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease this coronavirus causes, have occurred across all continents outside of Antarctica, and 4,027 deaths have resulted from it. With the outbreak set to intensify over the coming weeks and months, it is time for an update on what the carry-over effects have been for the dental industry.

March 10, 2020 | News

ST JULIAN’S, Malta: At the beginning of March, the European Aligner Society (EAS) announced that it was keeping a watchful eye on the situation regarding SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) on a daily basis. Now, the society has decided to postpone the third EAS congress from 19–21 March to 26–28 November 2020.