Testing for COVID-19 in dental offices: Mechanism of action, application, and interpretation of laboratory and point-of-care screening tests
- PMID:34176567
- PMCID: PMC8096195
- DOI: 10.1016/j.adaj.2021.04.019
Testing for COVID-19 in dental offices: Mechanism of action, application, and interpretation of laboratory and point-of-care screening tests
Erratum in
- Correction.[No authors listed][No authors listed]J Am Dent Assoc. 2021 Sep;152(9):719. doi: 10.1016/j.adaj.2021.07.006.J Am Dent Assoc. 2021.PMID:34454647Free PMC article.No abstract available.
Abstract
Background: The dental office potentially possesses all transmission risk factors for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2. Anticipating the future widespread use of COVID-19 testing in dental offices, the authors wrote this article as a proactive effort to provide dental health care providers with current and necessary information surrounding the topic.
Methods: The authors consulted all relevant and current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration, as well as online resources and review articles.
Results: Routine COVID-19 screening and triage protocols are unable to detect all infected people. With the advancements in diagnostic tools and techniques, COVID-19 testing at home or in the dental office may provide dentists with the ability to evaluate the disease status of their patients. At-home or point-of-care (POC) tests, providing results within minutes of being administered, would allow for appropriate measures and rapid decisions about dental patients' care process. In this review, the authors provide information about available laboratory and POC COVID-19 screening methods and identify and elaborate on the options available for use by dentists as well as the regulatory requirements of test administration.
Conclusions: Dentists need to be familiar with COVID-19 POC testing options. In addition to contributing to public health, such tests may deliver rapid, accurate, and actionable results to clinical and infection control teams to enhance the safe patient flow in dental practices.
Practical implications: Oral health care must continue to offer safety in this or any future pandemics. Testing for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 at the POC offers a control mechanism contributing to and enhancing the real and perceived safety of care in the dental office setting.
Keywords: COVID-19 testing; SARS-CoV-2; aerosols; antibody; antigen; dentistry; oral fluids; point-of-care testing; saliva; surveillance.
Copyright © 2021 American Dental Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention How COVID-19 spreads.https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid... Accessed March 31, 2021. - PubMed
- Estrich C.G., Gurenlian J.R., Battrell A. COVID-19 prevalence and related practices among dental hygienists in the United States. J Am Dent Hyg Assoc. 2021;95(1):6–16. - PubMed
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html Accessed March 31, 2021.
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