Dental Care and Oral Health Under COVID-19

The international forum, Dental Care and Oral Health Under Covid-19, featured experts from the northeast U.S., Wuhan and Beijing, China, Stockholm, Sweden, London, England, and Jerusalem, Israel who addressed the urgent questions being asked by oral health providers around the globe.

Topics included the status of salivary diagnostics for COVID-19, how the current evidence may help advance our understanding of managing patients, and ideas for other areas of study related to the pandemic were addressed.  

“In every part of the world, the dentistry profession is facing a challenge that no one could have predicted,” said Eli Eliav, DMD, PhD, director and professor, Eastman Institute for Oral Health. “Global challenges require global solutions, and we’re very pleased to bring together this group of experts for such important and valuable discussion.”

Dentistry is classified in the very-high-risk category of healthcare providers because of aerosol production involved in many dental procedures. They may be unknowingly providing direct care for infected but not yet diagnosed COVID-19 patients. 

“As healthcare providers, successfully treating patients with infectious diseases is something dentists have done for decades,” added YanFang Ren, DDS, PhD, MPH, professor and clinical chief of Eastman Institute's Howitt Urgent Dental Care, citing HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and influenza. “But there is so much to learn from this fast-spreading virus, and we look forward to working with our colleagues across the globe to quickly gain knowledge and implement solutions.”

The forum was chaired by Dr. Eliav, and Dr. Songlin Wang, of Capital Medical University and Chinese Academy of Science. Speakers and panelists include Dr. Zhuan Bian , School of Stomatology at Wuhan University, Dr. Pia Skott and Dr. Andreas Cederlund, Folktandvarden Stockholm Eastman Dental Institute, Dr. Cecile Feldman, Schools of Dental Medicine Public Health at Rutgers University, NJ, Dr. Stephen Porter and Dr. Stefano Fedele, Eastman Dental Institute, London, Dr. Lili Chen, HUST Tongji Med. College in Wuhan, Dr. Aaron Palmon and Dr. Lior Shapira, Hadassah School of Dental Medicine at Hebrew University, Dr. Cyril Meyerowitz and Dr. Yanfang Ren, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, Dr. Lin Yue, Chinese Stomatological Association and Peking University School of Stomatology.

View Rochester, NY, USA media coverage of the event here.