key: cord-0767475-aa22fpkw authors: Lee, Yeon‐Hee; Auh, Q‐Schick title: Strategies for prevention of coronavirus disease 2019 in the dental field date: 2020-05-16 journal: Oral Dis DOI: 10.1111/odi.13361 sha: 1ba82c69f2e9836cf742704317d7f06153b3a817 doc_id: 767475 cord_uid: aa22fpkw The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which began in Wuhan, China in December 2019, has become a huge public health issue in China and worldwide, spanning across Asia, including South Korea, Europe, North America, South America, and Oceania (Phelan, Katz, & Gostin, 2020). The fatality rate is 0.2 deaths per 100,000 persons per week globally. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic of international concern. How should the dental field set strategies to recognize and respond to information on mitigation or prevention of COVID-19? Based on the potential transmission pathway of 2019-nCoV, we present the following. First, routine prechecking of the general health status and travel history to epidemic areas is needed (Guo et al., 2020) . We recommend that patients with suspected or known COVID-19 be isolated or postpone their non-emergency dental care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, the use of basic personal protective equipment is recommended for treating asymptomatic potential carriers. During dental procedures, gowns, face shields, masks, goggles for eye protection, and gloves must be worn, and hand washing is essential (Peng et al., 2020) . Furthermore, as dental procedures commonly produce abundant saliva, droplets, and aerosols, dental professionals must avoid or minimize procedures that can produce droplets or aerosols or stimulate salivary secretion or coughing. The use of high-volume saliva ejectors with the fourhanded technique, minimization of the use of the three-way syringe, acquisition of extraoral radiographs rather than intraoral radiographs, and the use of oxidative or antimicrobial mouth rinse before dental procedures might be helpful. Treatment in an isolated and well-ventilated environment is recommended, and environmental cleaning is strongly recommended after dental procedures. Finally, as viruses are viable on surfaces for several days, disinfecting the surface of equipment with 62%-71% ethanol before and after dental procedures is recommended (Baseer et al., 2016) . The COVID-19 pandemic is still progressing. The abovemen- Awareness of droplet and airborne isolation precautions among dental health professionals during the outbreak of corona virus infection in Riyadh city, Saudi Arabia A familial cluster of pneumonia associated with the 2019 novel coronavirus indicating person-to-person transmission: A study of a family cluster 2019 Novel Coronavirus-Important Information for Clinicians Clinical characteristics of coronavirus disease 2019 in China The origin, transmission and clinical therapies on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak -an update on the status Early transmission dynamics in Wuhan, China, of novel coronavirus-infected pneumonia Transmission routes of 2019-nCoV and controls in dental practice The novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, China: Challenges for global health governance Consistent detection of 2019 novel coronavirus in saliva Aerosol and surface stability of SARS-CoV-2 as compared with SARS-CoV-1