Letters To The Editor: Coronavirus

UPFRONT
COMMENT
Letters to the editor

Send your letters to the Editor, British Dental Journal, 64 Wimpole Street, London, W1G 8YS. Email [email protected].
Priority will be given to letters less than 500 words long. Authors must sign the letter, which may be edited for reasons of space.
CORONAVIRUS
and permissible to extract offending teeth used a purpose built protection box during
Duty to extract using either sedation or local anaesthesia or a aerosol generating procedures (https://www.
Sir, as a Past President of the BDA I am combination of both. facebook.com/dentistsatwork).
dismayed and bemused to read frequent As healthcare professionals, dentists have These solutions may not be perfect but
reports in national newspapers decrying the a duty to relieve pain and to prevent the risk they can provide necessary protection in the
number of children awaiting many months of complications arising from long-term best and quickest way possible in the face
for tooth extractions in hospitals. Indeed, infections rather than referring patients to of exponential spread of the pandemic and
the Daily Telegraph claims that this is the a seemingly endless waiting list, especially economic limitations.
most frequent referral cause for children to during these difficult COVID-19 times, M. Javed, Qassim, Saudi Arabia, Y. Bhatti,
hospital, numbering equating to 177 cases which is exacerbating this dire state of affairs. London, UK
per day nationally at an estimated cost of J. Stuart Robson, York, UK
£41 million. A further report of this problem https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2282-3 References
appears in the recent BDJ (Potential surge 1. Kandelman D, Arpin S, Baez R J et al. Oral health care
in post-COVID child tooth extractions; BDJ
Frugal solutions systems in developing and developed countries.
Periodontol 2000 2012; 60: 98-109.
2020; 229: 278). Sir, in the current pandemic, the lack of 2. Harris M, Bhatti Y, Buckley J, Sharma D. Fast and frugal
Is this because dentists, both in practices equitable oral healthcare facilities, shortfall innovations in response to the COVID19 pandemic. Nat
Med 2020; 26: 814-817
and community dental services, are of dental healthcare providers, shortages 3. Prime M, Bhatti Y, Harris M. Frugal and reverse
either unwilling or unable to perform this of equipment/materials, and inadequate innovation in surgery. In Park A, Price R (eds). Global
surgery: the essentials. pp 193-206. Springer, 2017.
treatment? Furthermore, it seems that management of existing services is well 4. Agrawal V, Sharma D. Frugal solutions for the operating
frequent courses of antibiotics are prescribed known in developing countries.1 It may room during the COVID-19 pandemic. Br J Surg 2020;
107: e331.
to keep infection from carious teeth at bay not be possible for such countries to 5. Rahman S Z, Khan S. Patients’ case scenario as well as
pending hospital extraction. As we are all too upgrade the dental surgeries in their approaches and strategies adopted to manage COVID-
19 pandemic at Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh,
aware, this repeat prescribing is undesirable, tertiary care facilities to the suggested India. Bangladesh J Med Sci 2020; 19: S28-S35.
building up unnecessary resistances. level of ventilation, filtration, and negative https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2294-z
I presume dental schools still educate pressure, due to financial limitations. The
undergraduates in the expert technique of alternative solution for resource constrained
Thank you Covidentologists
extractions, therefore one must conclude environments is to explore frugal Sir, I would like to thank all my colleagues
that the problem is due to an unwillingness innovation approaches to make the most of who have worked so diligently to up-skill and
of clinicians in primary care to undertake existing assets and skills.2,3 kindly help guide others through the current
these treatments. We must remember that for For instance, for creating a temporary COVID-19 pandemic. Until six months ago,
every child suffering from painful teeth, there negative pressure in dental surgeries strong like many colleagues, I had little knowledge
are parents having to cope with stressful exhaust fans have been connected to the of this new respiratory virus and its impact
situations. simple duct system to deliver the air from on the dental profession.
Many years ago, I was a member of the the surgery at the minimum three metres Thanks to this new novel virus, we now
then termed ‘Poswillo’ working party, above the roof.4 To prevent the transmission have a growing number of colleagues within
reporting to the Department of Health on the of infection through aerosol in the dental dentistry who understand much more
safety of administering general anaesthetics setting the ‘protection box’ is an innovative about respiratory viruses than I ever seem
(GA) in practices, but additionally our and economical solution for performing to remember learning at dental school
role included reviewing other means of aerosol generating procedures.5 The or during my postgraduate studies. If we
anaesthesia. Whilst not advocating a return protection box has excellent visibility and add to this the long list of acronyms with
to providing GAs in outpatient clinics, in a can be reused after disinfection. Recently, in SOPs, AGPs, Non-AGPs, FFPs, written and
primary care setting it is perfectly possible Pakistan a dental surgeon has designed and re-written SOPs, the latest technology to help

BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL | VOLUME 229 NO. 8 | October 23 2020 499

© 2020 British Dental Association. All rights reserved.

Letters To The Editor: Coronavirus

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Letters To The Editor: Coronavirus

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Letters To The Editor: Coronavirus

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

UPFRONT

Letters to the editor

BRITISH DENTAL JOURNAL | VOLUME 229 NO. 8 | October 23 2020 499

You might also like