Dental Practice during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic: Two Pathfinder Documents Point the Way

This edition of the COVID-19 Commentary reviews and summarizes two landmark advisory documents on practising clinical dentistry during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and beyond. Both these, freely available, documents are essential reading for the whole dental team currently engaged in the delivery of dental care either in UK or elsewhere.

The insidious persistence of COVID-19 in many communities, including the UK, is a stark reminder that dentistry must ‘adapt and adopt’ new infection control measures to return to practice. Hence, numerous organizations and professional bodies have issued multiple recommendations on how best to mitigate severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection risk in routine dentistry.¹ It is, therefore, comforting to note the publication of two excellent pathfinder documents pointing the way forward for the dental team on safe clinical practice during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The first is a guidance document from the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme (SDCEP) entitled Mitigation of Aerosol Generating Procedures in Dentistry: A Rapid Review,² sponsored by NHS Education, Scotland. As the name implies, this document (46 pages) specifically addresses and appraises the extant evidence on a number of key questions related to aerosol generating procedures (AGPs) in dentistry, and recommends mitigation measures. The second is an extensive document (76 pages) issued by the College of General Dentistry (CGD) and the Faculty of General Dental Practice (FGDP), UK that covers a broader spectrum of practice issues, entitled Implications of COVID-19 for the Safe Management of General Dental Practice: A Practical Guide.³