Clinical management and infection control protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic: An online survey.

Background: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is considered a highly infectious and life threatening disease.

Objective: The present paper aims to evaluate various aspects of preventive measures and clinical management of the scheduled visits for orthodontic patients to the dental clinics during the outbreak of COVID-19, and to assess how orthodontists dealt with this challenge.

Methods: Orthodontists in private and public clinics were invited to fill a questionnaire that addressed infection control protocols and concerns about clinical management of patients in the clinics during the pandemic. Frequncies and percentages of the responses were obtained and compared using Chi-square tests.

Results: About 77% of those working in private clinics, and 63% of those working in private and governmental clinics performed room disinfection following each patient. In case of patients needing urgent management and have active infection, 56% of the participants provided care under high infection control measures; on the contrary, 64% provided symptomatic intervention including orthodontic wax, analgesics and sometimes mouthwash.

Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the orthodontic treatments. All pre-cautionary measures have to be made available in the clinic in order to minimize the spread of viral infection with continuous dental health care training.