Biosafety in Dental Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

Lucyene Miguita; Roberta Rayra Martins-Chaves; Victor Emmanuel Viana Geddes; Suellen da Rocha Mendes; Sara Ferreira Dos Santos Costa; Paula Luize Camargos Fonseca; Diego Menezes; Rafael Marques de Souza; Daniel Costa Queiroz; Hugo José Alves; Raphaela Alvarenga Braga de Freitas; Aline Fernanda Cruz; Rennan Garcias Moreira; Filipe Romero Rebello Moreira; Larissa Marques Bemquerer; Diego Rodrigues de Aguilar; Maria Elisa de Souza E Silva; Aline Araújo Sampaio; Francisca Daniele Moreira Jardilino; Leandro Napier de Souza; Tarcilia Aparecida da Silva; Carolina Cavaliéri Gomes; Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães de Abreu; Renato Santana de Aguiar; Renan Pedra de Souza; Ricardo Santiago Gomez

doi:10.3389/froh.2022.871107

Biosafety in Dental Health Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Longitudinal Study

Front Oral Health. 2022 May 10:3:871107. doi: 10.3389/froh.2022.871107. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Lucyene Miguita¹, Roberta Rayra Martins-Chaves², Victor Emmanuel Viana Geddes³, Suellen da Rocha Mendes⁴, Sara Ferreira Dos Santos Costa², Paula Luize Camargos Fonseca³, Diego Menezes³, Rafael Marques de Souza³, Daniel Costa Queiroz³, Hugo José Alves³, Raphaela Alvarenga Braga de Freitas², Aline Fernanda Cruz², Rennan Garcias Moreira⁵, Filipe Romero Rebello Moreira⁶, Larissa Marques Bemquerer², Diego Rodrigues de Aguilar⁴, Maria Elisa de Souza E Silva⁷, Aline Araújo Sampaio², Francisca Daniele Moreira Jardilino², Leandro Napier de Souza², Tarcilia Aparecida da Silva², Carolina Cavaliéri Gomes¹, Mauro Henrique Nogueira Guimarães de Abreu⁴, Renato Santana de Aguiar³, Renan Pedra de Souza³, Ricardo Santiago Gomez²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pathology, Biological Sciences Institute, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
² Department of Oral Surgery and Pathology, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
³ Department of Genetics, Ecology and Evolution, Biological Sciences Institute, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁴ Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁵ Multiusers Laboratories Center, Biological Sciences Institute, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁶ Departamento de Genética, Instituto de Biologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
⁷ Department of Operative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had quite an impact on dental health care. Concerns about the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission through contaminant fluids and droplet formation during several dental procedures highly impacted dental health care, drastically reducing the number of dental practices worldwide. To monitor SARS-CoV-2 contamination in dental clinics, a longitudinal study was carried out during the return of dental practice at university.

Methods: Dental health care professionals [(DHCPs); teachers, undergraduate dental students, and dental assistants] and patients were screened for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a dental school clinic environment from 11^th January to 12^th March 2021 (9 weeks). Serological testing was performed on DHCPs in two-time points. Additionally, samples with low Ct values were sequenced to identify the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variant and possible transmission clusters.

Results: We found a low number of dental staff (5.8%), patients (0.9%), and environment sites (0.8%) positive for SARS-CoV-2. Most positive cases had asymptomatic to mild symptoms, and two asymptomatic DHCPs presented prolonged infection. In the first week after previous exposure to COVID-19, 16.2% of DHCPs had IgM or IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, and 1/3 of them had undetected antibodies in the last weeks. The variant zeta (P.2) could be detected. No cross-infection was observed between participants.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that dental practice can be safely executed when adequate control measures and biosafety protocols are applied. DHCP and patient testing, patient telemonitoring, proper use of personal protection equipment, and sanitization of surfaces are essential to avoid SARS-CoV-2 cross-infection in dental practice.

Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; antibodies; dental public health; variant.

Copyright © 2022 Miguita, Martins-Chaves, Geddes, Mendes, Costa, Fonseca, Menezes, Souza, Queiroz, Alves, Freitas, Cruz, Moreira, Moreira, Bemquerer, Aguilar, Souza e Silva, Sampaio, Jardilino, Souza, Silva, Gomes, de Abreu, Aguiar, Souza and Gomez.