Search

Virucidal activity of Povidone-Iodine (PVP-I) have not yet been performed specifically on SARS-CoV-2. There have been in vitro studies demonstrating its effectiveness against multiple viruses including related coronaviruses. PVP-I could be effective to reduce viral load from asymptomatic COVID-19 patients and also provide a protective oropharyngeal hygiene measure for the health professionals.

BACKGROUND: The current coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemics induced a modification of daily life and clinical practice. Health care workers, particularly dentists and dental hygienists, have been obliged to limit their activity and to establish new operative protocols. AIM: We aimed to discuss an easy protocol for the prevention of cross-infections in dental settings. METHODS: We revised literature data about COVID-19 and oral health to establish how to work safely with dental patients. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A few papers are currently available about the effective prevention of COVID-19 during dental procedures. Most of the revised articles report a potential strong effectiveness of povidone-iodine and its safety for both patients and dental professionals.

The novel Coronavirus pandemic defines a new risk for all dental practitioners, hygienists, and dental assistants. As an increasing number of dentists are now developing this disease, we wanted to provide some measures to manage this risk in the dental practice, by undergoing a review of the current literature. This minireview searches the literature for articles that both defined the infection risk in the dental practice and provided evidence on the efficacy of some procedures on reducing the infection risk. Several articles have already pointed out some necessary measures: fewer patients have to be admitted to the practice, a short triage should be carried out, and the appropriate measures of protection have to be used. On the basis of the literature collected, a short questionnaire and a flowchart is proposed to define the risk that each patient carries, and to appropriately adapt each procedure based on the patient’s risk. The literature is still limited on this subject, but on the basis of what is available, dental practices have to adapt to the situation in order to protect dental health professionals. Impact statement: Dentists have always been taught how to protect themselves and their patients from potential blood-borne pathogens, but the Coronavirus pandemic has brought a new unprecedented challenge to the world of dentistry; we therefore reviewed the literature to provide suggestions on how to accordingly change dental practice prevention.

Purpose: To review the literature on the presence of two clinical manifestations in patients presenting COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infection: loss of taste (ageusia) and loss of smell (anosmia). Methods: PubMed and EMBASE were searched and studies were selected starting from November, 2019 until April 2020; also, the references of the selected articles were evaluated for methodological quality. Results: Of the 19 studies analyzed, five were included to evaluate the presence of ageusia and/or anosmia as symptoms in patients who were tested and resulted positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. In a total of 10,818 patients, 8,823 presented ageusia (81.6%; range 5.6%-88%) and 8,088 presented anosmia (74.8%; range 5.1-85.6%). Only one study recorded both symptoms with a percentage of 18.6%.