New Delhi: A per the new guidelines issued by the Union health ministry dental clinics in the COVID-19 containment zones will remain closed, however, they can continue to provide teleconsultation to patients.
Stating that dentists, auxiliaries as well as the patients undergoing dental procedures are at high risk of cross-infection as most dental procedures require a close contact with the patients’ oral cavity, saliva, blood and respiratory tract secretions, the ministry has advised that all patients must be treated with due precautions.
“Saliva is rich in COVID-19 viral load. Many patients who are asymptomatic may be carriers. For this reason, it is suggested that all patients visiting a dental office must be treated with due precautions,” it underlined.
According to the advisory, dental clinics will remain closed in the containment zones.
However, they can continue to provide teleconsultation and the patients in these zones can seek ambulance services to travel to the nearby COVID dental facility.
Emergency dental procedures can be performed in the dental facilities falling under “red” zones.
The dental clinics in the “orange” and “green” zones can provide consultancy, but such operations should be restricted to emergency and urgent treatment procedures only, the guidelines stated.
All routine and elective dental procedures should be deferred for a later review until new policy/guidelines are issued.
“Due to the high risk associated with the examination of the oral cavity, oral cancer screening under the National Cancer Screening programme should be deferred until new policy or guidelines are issued,” the ministry said.
The clinical conditions of dental origin, which require priority care but do not increase the patient’s death risk, are categorised as “urgent” and those increasing the patient’s death risk are categorised as “emergency”, it said.
The guidelines were issued as the death toll due to COVID-19 rose to 3,163 and the number of cases crossed the one lakh-mark in the country on Tuesday.
