Dimashkieh MR, Nassani MZ, Talic YF, Alqerban A, Demachkia AM. Mouth shield to minimize airborne transmission risk of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in the dental office. World J Methodol 2022; 12(5): 461-464 [PMID: 36186742 DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v12.i5.461]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Mohammad Zakaria Nassani, DDS, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Restorative and Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Dar Al Uloom University, Northen Ring Road, Exit 7, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia. mznassani@dau.edu.sa
Research Domain of This Article
Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine
Article-Type of This Article
Letter to the Editor
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Methodol. Sep 20, 2022; 12(5): 461-464 Published online Sep 20, 2022. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v12.i5.461
Mouth shield to minimize airborne transmission risk of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases in the dental office
Mohiddin R Dimashkieh, Mohammad Zakaria Nassani, Yousef Fouad Talic, Ali Alqerban, Amir M Demachkia
Mohiddin R Dimashkieh, Mohammad Zakaria Nassani, Yousef Fouad Talic, Department of Restorative and Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Dar Al Uloom University, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia
Ali Alqerban, Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Dar Al Uloom University, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia
Ali Alqerban, Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Al-Kharj 11942, Saudi Arabia
Amir M Demachkia, Department of Dental Materials and Prosthodontics, São Paulo State University - Institute of Science and Technology, São José dos Campos, São Paulo 12224-300, Brazil
Author contributions: Dimashkieh MR proposed the topic of the paper; Dimashkieh MR and Nassani MZ prepared the original draft; Talic YF, Alqerban A and Demachkia AM reviewed and revised the original draft; all authors discussed and agreed the final draft.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mohammad Zakaria Nassani, DDS, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Restorative and Prosthetic Dental Sciences, College of Dentistry, Dar Al Uloom University, Northen Ring Road, Exit 7, Riyadh 13314, Saudi Arabia. mznassani@dau.edu.sa
Received: June 1, 2022 Peer-review started: June 1, 2022 First decision: June 27, 2022 Revised: July 4, 2022 Accepted: August 7, 2022 Article in press: August 7, 2022 Published online: September 20, 2022
Abstract
Transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and other infectious diseases is a significant risk during dental procedures because most dental interventions involve aerosols or droplets that could contaminate the surrounding environment. Current protection guidelines to address the high risk of droplets, aerosols, and airborne particle transmission of COVID-19 in the dental office recommend minimizing aerosol-generating procedures. In this paper, an innovative mouth shield is presented that should minimize water backsplash from the air-water syringe during dental treatment. The mouth shield can be added to the personal protective equipment to provide the dental team with extra protection. It can be made of different materials, is straightforward, inexpensive, and safe to fabricate, and is easy to use.
Core Tip: This letter to the editor presents an innovative mouth shield to increase the protection of the dental team against the water backsplash of aerosols, droplets, and airborne particles during dental procedures.
