Post-COVID Strategies Based on Clinical Dentistry in South Korea

Author Info

John Hyunbaek Ahn Susan Power

Corresponding Author

John Hyunbaek Ahn
Senior Registrar in Orthodontics, Oxford University Hospital, UK

A B S T R A C T

Introduction: The United Kingdom is in the process of gradually lifting the lockdown, and a lot of uncertainties and concerns exist in the field of dentistry in terms of clinical management of patients due to the high risk of work-related transmission. Learning from the strategies of clinical dental practice in other countries may help in the development of national recommendations. Aims: South Korea managed to contain COVID-19 without full-scale lockdown. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of clinical practice of dentistry and orthodontics in South Korea and compare it with information from other countries throughout the world. Design: An anonymous 21-item questionnaire covering post-COVID strategies was sent to the orthodontic departments of eleven University Dental Hospitals in South Korea for completion. Results: Three of the eleven hospitals completed the survey. All hospitals provided information on their post-COVID strategies in terms of staff and patient considerations, clinical working environment, clinical arrangements, dental procedures, personal protective equipment and disinfection. Conclusion: The current evidence on COVID-19 is limited and the risk of its transmission through aerosol generating procedures is still unclear. In the meantime, robust post-COVID strategies must be in place in order to minimize the risk of spread.

Article Info

Article Type

Research Article

Publication history

Received: Thu 28, May 2020
Accepted: Thu 11, Jun 2020
Published: Thu 18, Jun 2020

Copyright

© 2023 John Hyunbaek Ahn. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.JDOA.2020.01.04