Dental treatment during the lock down period — safe or not

Abstract

The coronavirus causing COVID-19 is officially named as SARS-CoV-2. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which originated in Wuhan, China, has become a major public health concern all over the World. Infection control measures are necessary to stop the virus from spreading further and help to manage the pandemic situation. Many countries have implemented lock-down measures and social distancing to slow down or prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. This implementation is believed to possess a signif-icantly decreased rate of growth and increased doubling time of cases. Due to the spread through respiratory droplets, the incidence of infection will be high between patients and dental practitioners. The dental clinics and hospitals within the containment areas of COVID-19 should follow infection control protocols precisely in order to confer safety to both the patients and the prac-titioners. This article thus provides important and requisite knowledge about COVID-19 and therefore, the restrictions and strict protocols to be followed for or while undertaking dental treatment during the crucial lockdown period of COVID-19.