Precautions in dentistry against the outbreak of corona virus disease 2019

The outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a severe global acute respiratory pandemic around the world in just a few months with an increasing number of infections and deaths. COVID-19 is a highly contagious and fatal disease. Almost everyone in the population is susceptible, and the incubation period is 1-14 days, mostly 3-7 days. The clinical symptoms of the COVID-19 are fever, dry cough and fatigue. Some patients are accompanied by symptoms such as nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, myalgia and diarrhea. Severe patients could even develop acute respiratory distress syndrome, septic shocks, metabolic acidosis and multifunctional organ failure, etc. Due to the relatively closed environment of dental clinics and the unique nature of dental procedures, both dental personnel and patients are easy to get infection through currently known respiratory droplet transmission, aerosol transmission, close contact transmission and other ways, inducing mutual cross-infection. Dental practitioners are facing unprecedented challenges due to the high risk of exposure to droplets and aerosols from saliva and other body fluids during dental procedures. Based on our experience and relevant research, this article introduces the basic knowledge about COVID-19 and the corresponding protective measures for dental practitioners, includes the risk of infection during dental procedures, the precautions related to the patients, infection control measures during dental treatment in clinics, protection measures at different levels for dental practitioners, and emergency dental treatment for confirmed COVID-19. It is the responsibility of every dental practitioner to fully understand the characteristics of the new coronavirus and strictly implement the most appropriate protective measures to reduce and control the risk of cross infection in dental procedures.