Dental schools and hospitals seek to overcome challenges of COVID-19

Dental education has been one of the most severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The risk of infection by SARS-CoV-2 posed by the small amounts of saliva in aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) is yet to be determined.

However, the problem is exacerbated in dental education due to the fact that dental students are taught how to drill in open-plan, multi-chair clinics – magnifying the amount of aerosol potentially produced if all chairs are in action at once.

Dental students treat more than 400,000 volunteer patients each year but have not been allowed to treat patients since March. This reduction in clinical experience could affect their ability to graduate and enter the workforce to the anticipated timescale.

Current solutions include:

Active research by dental academics to quantify and mitigate the risk posed by aerosol so that clinics can be reconfigured to provide care appropriately

However, if lack of practical experience means that the required competencies have not been achieved, then students will not be able to graduate to work as dentists, dental therapists or dental hygienists. Work has been undertaken with the UK’s dental regulator, the General Dental Council (GDC) and the three following solutions are being progressed to ensure the flow of new dentists and dental therapists into the workforce: