The Scientific Basis for Delivering Oral Health Care During COVID 19

Heightened anxiety among oral health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic stems mainly from uncertainties associated with personal protective equipment (PPE) and disease transmission risks from asymptomatic COVID-19 patients. In this webinar, we will review the scientific basis for safely delivering oral health care during an infectious respiratory disease pandemic. We’ll discuss available scientific evidence related to PPE effectiveness, prevalence of asymptomatic COVID-19 cases in the local community, viral load of SARS CoV-2 in human saliva, rate of transmission from asymptomatic patients to healthcare providers in close contact, probability to acquire an infection from asymptomatic patients in dental offices and the utilities of pre-procedural protocols and portable air filtration systems. While there is currently no objective evidence that demonstrates an increased risk in providing oral health care during the COVID-19 pandemic, there remains many unknowns and knowledge gaps regarding the potential risks a respiratory infectious disease poses to oral health care providers. The global COVID-19 pandemic presents another opportunity to continuously improve our abilities to provide safe and effective services to our patients, while protecting ourselves from work-related risks.

Learning Objectives:
- Understand the factors associated with the potential risk of COVID-19 transmission in oral health care settings.
- Describe transmission-based precautions that minimize the risks of respiratory disease transmission in dental offices.

Speaker:
Yanfang Ren is Professor and Director, Howitt Dental Urgent Care at Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University of Rochester Medical Center, New York. He graduated from Peking University School of Stomatology, China and received his Ph.D. in odontology in Sweden. Ren completed residency and fellowship training in general dentistry and orofacial pain at Eastman Institute for Oral Health, University in Rochester, New York, and received his M.P.H. from the University of Rochester School of Medicine, New York. Ren practices general dentistry and provides didactic and clinical training for post-doctoral dental residents and is a clinician-scientist involved in clinical and translational oral health research. Ren has published extensively in a broad range of clinical dentistry areas and was the recipient of the EIOH Iranpour Award for Excellence in Clinical Education. He had served on the AADR Fellowship Committee and is currently a member of the IADR Nominating Committee.