Multiple changes were made at dental care facilities to curb the spread of SARS-CoV-2, and these strategies cut transmission risk, according to a presentation given on July 21 at the virtual International Association for Dental Research (IADR) General Session.
About 40% of practices reported closing wait areas and practices, and most other clinicians reported making changes to patient wait and staff-only areas to reduce exposure to the novel coronavirus and allow for social distancing. Jeffrey Fellows, PhD, a health economist at Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, presented a poster with the findings.
Other than adding high-volume evacuators and high-efficiency particulate air filters, few changes were made to operatories. Additionally, staff spent a median extra 40 minutes daily disinfecting practices.
The data were collected from dentists, dental hygienists, and dental therapists who were enrolled in the National Dental Practice-Based Research Network and participated in the COVID-19 Research (CORE) Registry study.
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