How to Spread Guidance to Dentists During the COVID-19?

A new poster presentation summarizes and evaluates the clinical guidance and other evidence-based resources developed for dentists and patients by the American Dental Association (ADA) during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new poster "Strategies for Disseminating Guidance to Dentists during the COVID-19 Pandemic" was presented at the virtual 99th General Session & Exhibition of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR), held in conjunction with the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) and the 45th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR).

A rapidly formulated, actionable infection risk reduction strategies for dental care professionals were needed during the initial acceleration phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 Infection Less Threat to Dentist
COVID-19 infection rates of dentists remain lower than other health professionals because of adhering to very strict protocols for enhanced infection control helps to protect the dental team and patients.

‘The American Dental Association (ADA) developed various strategies to guide dentists during the COVID-19 Pandemic.’

This content was catalogued by the ADA between March 2020 and February 2021 to address dentists' needs for COVID-19 related practice guidance.

The insight about the strategies and approaches to their formulation, intended use, publication/posting date and utility as assessed by number of downloads and visits from ADA.org was evaluated with respect to the chronology of the pandemic.

The ADA also established a centralized online hub to spread the latest COVID-19 evidence, policy and guidance. In April 2020, the ADA received more than 2,360 COVID-19 related member queries.

Dental Anxiety | Dental Phobia - Causes, Symptoms, Consequences, Treatment and Prevention
Dental Anxiety is kind of dental phobia where a person has a fear of going to dentist mainly due to painful dental procedures associated with the past.

Initial ADA guidance to mitigate virus transmission relied on information about safety considerations extrapolated from medical rather than dental settings to produce several decision algorithms (16,529 downloads) and a reference document (22,176 downloads) citing supporting information sources.

The initial guidance algorithms were for provision of urgent and emergency care and addressed patient screening, use of professional protective equipment, operatory disinfection and patients' treatment.

Understanding Oral-Health Impact Profile Survey
New oral health impact survey by a school student helps dental practitioners to improve their dental care and enhance their treatment plan.

A companion document that defined urgent and emergency care (58,551 downloads) was reviewed by the ADA Board of Trustees.

As restrictions on provision of dental care were lifted, increased member volunteer engagement was considered prudent to better ensure the relevance and feasibility of the guidance informing about a more comprehensive range of dental care. The resultant return-to-work toolkit (32,441 downloads) has been accessed more than 640,370 times.

Dental Nutraceuticals Help Improve Oral Health During COVID-19
The use of oral health supplements or dental nutraceuticals help improve dental hygiene in COVID-19 patients.

Source-Medindia