The 4 Es in dentistry?

UK readers will, of course, be aware that the UK has entered its third lockdown at the time of writing. However, third time around, what will the levels of compliance be? It has been considered that high levels of compliance in the first lockdown appear to have been driven by a sense that it is right to comply with the restrictions to ‘save lives and protect the NHS’, that it is normative to do so, and that it is a legal requirement.¹ There have been questions regarding ‘lockdown fatigue’ as we enter the third lockdown. Nevertheless, those flaunting the restrictions seem to be few, albeit that there have been high-profile cases in which the police broke up illegal gatherings, such as house parties and unlicensed music events, and, most notably, the case of two women walking in Derbyshire whose tea break was classified as a picnic, and they were duly fined, although that was later retracted. There is no question that lockdown restrictions (eg social distancing) remain centrally important if the COVID-19 pandemic is to be brought under control, and the public has largely displayed voluntary compliance. Thankfully, it has been decided that dental practices are not a vector for infection: they never were. The profession should be proud of their infection control before and during the pandemic, and how they learned to cope (to some degree) with the additional infection control measures that have been needed to be put in place.