The Need for Re-education of Dental Practitioners Regarding the Management of Dental Infections During The COVID-19 Pandemic: From The Perspective of A Dual-Degree Oral And Maxillofacial Surgery Clinic

Abstract

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals around the world implement various measures to prevent the spread of infection among medical staff. Due to an excessive overload of intensive care units (ICUs), medical staff of various disciplines was assigned to COVID-19 patients upon the official announcement of the outbreak. In the countries where education to become an oral and maxillofacial surgeon (OMFS) requires a degree in both stomatology (DDS) and medicine (MD), OMFSs were also assigned to work in ICUs to manage the COVID- 19 patients. On the other hand, some of the departments, including oral and maxillofacial surgery clinics, have also decided to work in double teams to ensure that only one team had a patient contact and the remaining half of the staff could be protected from COVID-19 infection. 1