Today new COVID 19 Safety Protocols in dentistry are being implemented in every dental office. When news about the Coronavirus first came out, no one imagined things would get this bad. Now almost a year later, millions are infected and thousands have died because of the disease we now infamously know as COVID-19. With the virus changing constantly and no vaccine in sight, governments have put out different restrictions to prevent more people from getting sick. From staying indoors to wearing uncomfortable masks and reaching for that bottle of hand sanitizer every now and then, we’re all trying our best to avoid the virus and its terrifying consequences.

But things get scarier when your tooth starts to ache.
You might think…
I can’t go to the dentist. It’s too dangerous.
And you have a right to be concerned.

This is a dream scenario for a virus that transfers via respiratory droplets, and an absolute nightmare for you and your aching tooth.
Thankfully, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the American Dental Association (ADA) were quick to put out guidelines for dentists to make sure that patients stayed safe. Now, these guidelines have been updated to help more dentists reopen their practices and more people get the dental help they need. The dental protocols during COVID are put in place to make sure you visit the safest COVID dentist every time.

In this article, we are going to go over what the safety covid protocols are and how they can resolve your concerns about visiting the dentist.

5 Concerns in COVID Dentistry That Are Holding You Back From Going to the Dentist
You might not even want to know what the updated dental protocols during COVID are. You just can’t risk it and go to the dentist. You would rather tolerate the pain of that aching tooth and ignore your swollen gums than put yourself in danger of catching the disease.
And you’re not the only one who thinks this way. So many other people are postponing their dental visits because they share the same concerns.
Let’s take a look at some of these concerns.

1-Aerosols and Droplets
We’ve all been told to keep our masks on, because COVID’s main transmission route is through air, specifically aerosols and droplets. Aerosols are respiratory particles that can suspend in the air for hours, while droplets are larger in size and fall to the ground.
When we talk, cough or sneeze, these particles leave our mouths and float in the air. If we inhale infected aerosols and droplets from a COIVD patient, we will catch the disease. In a dental office where patients have to sit with an open mouth for long hours in a small closed space during procedures that create more of these droplets and aerosols, the chance of catching COVID dramatically increases.

2-Dentist and the Staff
With the number of patients visiting the dental office, the dental health care personnel (DHCP) are at the most risk. Dentists are exposed to all types of infections from patients and a tiny spray of blood or saliva is enough to infect them. The personnel have to tend to the patients and are also in contact with the dentists.
Plus, the DHCP might be infected themselves. They might catch the virus in a split second and give it to the next patient. This will create a dangerous chain of transmission without them even knowing until it’s too late.

3-Other Patients
The dental office is always a crowded place and never short of patients. Most offices are not that big and with procedures taking longer than expected, the waiting room can get crammed. Social distancing is a golden rule in avoiding COVID and is recommended that you stay at least 3 feet apart from other people.
This seems almost impossible in a dental office.

4-Equipment
What worries you the most might be the equipment used by the dentist. Most devices are used on every patient and have a high risk of transmitting the infection. They can easily transfer the virus from one patient to the other if they are not sterilized properly.
With the exhaustion from having to take all these precautions, a brief moment of neglect by an under-trained staff member while disinfecting the instruments can be all the time the virus needs to stick to the equipment and travel to the next patient’s mouth.

5-The Office Environment
Remember the droplets we talked about? These droplets can land on different surfaces in the office like doorknobs and chairs. Based on the material of the surfaces, the droplets can live up to 72 hours and still be infectious.
Although the risk of catching COVID from these contaminated surfaces is less than the other ways, it’s still possible. If you touch these areas and then accidentally touch your face, the infected particles will travel from your fingertips to your eyes, mouth, or nose and the virus will enter your body.
It’s completely understandable for you to have these concerns, but the new protocols are here to address them.

What Are the COVID 19 Safety Protocols?
Back in March, the ADA advised people to only visit the dentist for emergency dental situations including broken teeth, severe pain, and non-stop bleeding, a new safety covid protocols. This precaution also helped save necessary protective equipment for people working in hospitals and responding to COVID. CDC has also published some guidelines to make sure that patients went to the safest COVID dentists every time.
But if you delay your visit to the dentist, something that seems like a non-emergency dental situation can develop into a chronic one. According to the ADA, no cases of COVID have been reported to date because of dental practices, and dentists agree that by taking strict precautions, the dental visits can be safe. So more and more offices are reopening and seeing patients. And thanks to COVID and the quarantines, most of us have had a little too much sugar and are in need of a dentist.
So CDC has updated its dental protocols during COVID to help more dental offices reopen safely. To be fair, dentists followed these guidelines before COVID anyway, but now the attention has increased and so has the pressure. CDC’s new guidelines elaborate on the previous ones and if followed strictly, can make the visit to the dentist as safe as it was before COVID.