Environmental Disinfection of a Dental Clinic during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Narrative Insight

الملخص EN

Background.

The control of biological hazard risk in health care and dental clinic environments represents a critical point in relation to the Covid-19 infection outbreak and international public health emergency.

The purpose of the present review was to evaluate the scientific literature on the no-touch disinfection procedures in dental clinics aiming to limit transmission via airborne particles or fomites using no-touch procedures for environmental decontamination of dental clinics.

Methods.

An electronic database literature search was performed to retrieve research papers about Covid-19 and no-touch disinfection topics including full-length articles, editorials, commentaries, and outbreak studies.

A total of 86 papers were retrieved by the electronic research.

Results.

No clinical article about the decontamination of a dental clinic during the Covid-19 pandemic was detected.

About the topic of hospital decontamination, we found different no-touch disinfection procedures used in hospital against highly resistant organisms, but no data were found in the search for such procedures with respect to SARS-CoV-2: (1) aerosolized hydrogen peroxide, (2) H2O2 vapor, (3) ultraviolet C light, (4) pulsed xenon, and (5) gaseous ozone.

One paper was retrieved concerning SARS-CoV-2; 32 documents focused on SARS and MERS.

The cleaning and disinfection protocol of health care and dental clinic environment surfaces are essential elements of infection prevention programs, especially during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Conclusion.

The decontamination technique that best suits the needs of the dental clinic is peroxide and hypochlorous which can be sprayed via a device at high turbine speed with the ability of producing small aerosol particles, recommendable also for their low cost.