June 22, 2021 | News

CHICAGO, U.S.: How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting dental practice? The American Dental Association (ADA) has been engaging with thousands of U.S. dentists every month in order to answer this question. The latest Health Policy Institute (HPI) survey results found that around 61% of all clinics were open and operating normally, but that dental support organizations (DSOs) and larger group practices were more likely to be experiencing pre-pandemic patient volumes.

June 17, 2021 | News

CHESTERFIELD, UK: The pandemic has been ongoing for over a year now, and there is still a strong need to protect healthcare and scientific staff from SARS-CoV-2 infection. To stay safe, many professionals have been adhering to strict infection protection and control guidelines and using various protective gear. However, some safety equipment, which is often cumbersome, has sometimes led to facial bruising or skin damage and caused considerable discomfort or even pain. To offer dental professionals increased protection and comfort, UK dental industry supplier Denka is now distributing a new solution for respiratory protection: the CleanSpace HALO respirator.

June 16, 2021 | News

SHANGHAI, China: Given that SARS-CoV-2 originated in China, it is understandable that the nation’s emergency dental care providers have experienced an immense psychological burden since the virus was first discovered. A study of these workers has sought to better understand the exact way in which they have been affected by these experiences. The results of the study have confirmed the need for psychological support services during such difficult times.

June 9, 2021 | News

BIRMINGHAM, UK: To fill a research gap, researchers have recently examined whether dental professionals are, in fact, at an increased risk of becoming infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the workplace, as has often been hypothesised. They found that close contact with patients put dental professionals at a higher risk of developing COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic and that a large number of dental professionals had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in their blood.

June 8, 2021 | News

LOMA LINDA, Calif., U.S.: Airborne respiratory droplets are one of the main modes of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and the common use of aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) in dental clinics has necessitated the study of preventive measures that can be taken to reduce the associated risk. To this end, researchers from Loma Linda University compared the effectiveness of dental evacuation systems and found that a combination of devices resulted in the greatest reduction in microbial aerosols.

June 3, 2021 | News

CHICAGO, U.S.: Since the beginning of the pandemic, dentistry has been deemed unsafe as dental professionals run a high risk of SARS-CoV-2 spread through aerosol contamination during dental procedures. Nevertheless, no confirmed COVID-19 cases among patients receiving dental care have been reported to date. Adding to a growing body of evidence that challenges the initial perception, a recent study highlighted that dental professionals in the U.S. have successfully adopted the recommended infection control practices and continue to show an extremely low prevalence of the disease.

May 27, 2021 | News

PORTO ALEGRE, Brazil: Since SARS-CoV-2 has been found in different sites in the human body, researchers have recently sought to examine the presence of the virus in the dental biofilm of symptomatic patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. They reported that some patients who had tested positive in nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal samples also presented SARS-CoV-2 in the supragingival biofilm sample. The findings suggest that dental biofilm may play an important role in COVID-19 transmission as it may harbour SARS-CoV-2 in symptomatic patients.

May 14, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: Attending myriad Zoom meetings is now a reality for many professionals who had to shift to the home office culture during the pandemic. Needless to say, having a virtual platform that allowed people to communicate with their colleagues safely from a distance did have its benefits. However, according to a survey conducted by the British Orthodontic Society (BOS), people have become increasingly conscious of their teeth during close-up video conferencing, which is manifested in a surge in adults seeking orthodontic treatment in the past year.

May 12, 2021 | Interviews

The pandemic has caused professional and private challenges. However, some people managed to use this downtime to stimulate their creativity and to test their entrepreneurial skills. One of these people is Dr. Scott Yamaoka, who devoted his time and energy to creating a face shield that would protect his dental team and patients from SARS-CoV-2 infection in the workplace. In this interview, he and his son, Zach Yamaoka, tell Dental Tribune International how they turned their idea into a product—the next generation optical face shield that allows dentists to comfortably fit magnification loupes with fiber optic lighting.

May 7, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: As world leaders are continuing to roll out vaccination programmes and encouraging the public to get vaccinated, one thing is clear: there are still people who refuse or delay their vaccinations. Healthcare workers are a priority group since they run an elevated risk of infection. However, in a recent study, researchers found that vaccine hesitancy prevails in around a quarter of healthcare workers in the UK and that, compared with their white British colleagues, some ethnic minority groups show more resistance to getting vaccinated.

May 6, 2021 | News

CHICAGO, U.S.: In a recent study, researchers have examined the prevalence of COVID-19 in pediatric dentistry by testing children during their visit at the pediatric dentist’s office. The study reported that, although all the children who took part in the study were asymptomatic, some of them tested positive after undergoing polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests. This suggests that testing pediatric dental patients could help better identify potential SARS-CoV-2 carriers and subsequently reduce transmission rates.

May 5, 2021 | News

GLASGOW, UK: SARS-CoV-2 transmission by those with asymptomatic infection may be significant, but little is known about this. Therefore, researchers from the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing of the University of Glasgow and public health authorities in Scotland have investigated SARS-CoV-2 infection in asymptomatic dental patients to inform surveillance of the spread of the virus and improve understanding of risks in the dental setting.

May 4, 2021 | News

LEIPZIG, Germany: As the COVID-19 pandemic has progressed, more and more has been discovered about the virus and disease. Previously, it was assumed that SARS-CoV-2 infected the lungs only via the upper airways. Now, another hypothesis has been formally published that suggests that the virus is transmitted via a vascular route from the oral cavity to the lungs.

April 22, 2021 | News

LONDON, UK: The COVID-19 pandemic has left companies in unprecedented difficulties, and without government support, many businesses would have undoubtedly failed to survive the past year. Apart from government support, some businesses have sought to rely on business interruption insurance. In this article, Hewi Ma, specialist dental solicitor at Goodman Grant Solicitors, and Darren Nicholson, specialist dental accountant at Azets, both in the UK, recap their experiences in dealing with post-pandemic business interruption insurance claims.

April 19, 2021 | News

CHICAGO, U.S.: A survey by the American Dental Association (ADA) has found that more patients have developed bruxism as a result of stress during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and that there is a general increase in stress-related oral health conditions. According to the association’s chief science officer, the trend means that routine dental check-ups have never been more important.

April 15, 2021 | News

MILAN, Italy: Since the evidence of oral manifestations linked to SARS-CoV-2 is scarce, researchers have recently set out to fill the gap by investigating the presence and prevalence of oral conditions in people who had contracted COVID-19 and successfully recovered from it. They discovered that SARS-CoV-2 directly affects the oral cavity of COVID-19 survivors, which is manifested by a significant number of the patients developing salivary gland ectasia and other oral diseases after clinical recovery.

April 14, 2021 | News

WASHINGTON, U.S.: As vaccine supply continues to increase in the coming weeks and all adults across the United States become eligible for vaccination, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched an online portal to help dental providers navigate the training and registration they will need to complete in order to become a part of the expanded COVID-19 vaccine workforce.

April 13, 2021 | News

BETHESDA, Md., U.S.: COVID-19 can cause a number of symptoms in the oral cavity, such as lesions, ulcerations and a loss of taste, and yet the role of the mouth in SARS-CoV-2 infection and transmission is poorly understood. A study by an international team of scientists has found evidence that the virus infects cells in the mouth. This finding, the researchers say, shows that the oral cavity could play an important role in SARS-CoV-2 infection and underscores the need for adequate prevention measures in dental settings.