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

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

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oral Health

VOLUME=Volume 3 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oral-health/articles/10.3389/froh.2022.871107

DOI=10.3389/froh.2022.871107

ISSN=2673-4842

ABSTRACT=Background: The COVID-19 pandemic had quite an impact on dental health care. Concerns about the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission by contaminant fluids, droplets formation during several dental procedures, highly impacted on dental health care, drastically reducing the number of dental procedures worldwide. To monitor contamination of SARS-CoV-2 in dental clinics during activities return of students at university, a longitudinal study was carried out. 
Methods: SARS-CoV-2 RNA was screened in a dental school clinic environment and personnel (professors, undergraduate dental students, dental assistants, and patients) from January 11th to March 12th, 2021 (9 weeks). Serological testing was performed on dental health care professionals (DHCP) in two-time points. Additionally, samples with low Ct 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 were asymptomatic to mild symptoms, and two asymptomatic DHCP presented prolonged infection. 16.2% of DHCP showed IgM or IgG antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in the 1st week showing previous exposure to COVID-19, 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 executed safely when control measures and biosafety protocols are applied adequately. DHCP and patient testing, patient telemonitoring, proper use of personal protection equipment, and surfaces sanitization are essential to avoid SARS-CoV-2 cross-infection in dental practice.