Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the dental service: A narrative review

This article describes what changes have had to be made to the functioning of dental practices due to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the pandemic has affected dental staff. Dentists are at high risk of infection and this is associated with fear, including the fear of being infected by their co-workers and patients, or that they will infect their families. The introduced changes include increased protective measures, and the introduction of additional questionnaires and procedures. In dental practices, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been increased and changes have been introduced in the functioning of surgeries in accordance with the recommendations of dental associations and governments. The aforementioned changes have significantly reduced the comfort of dental work, increased the costs of treatment and reduced the availability of dental treatment. A novel solution to this situation has been the implementation of teledentistry, which helps to reduce the number of non-emergency visits. This process involves the remote facilitation of dental treatment by means of technology (i.e., phone or the Internet) without direct contact with the patient. Due to the restrictions implemented during the pandemic, many universities have introduced remote or hybrid teaching for both didactic and practical classes.