Matías Santos-López & Hermann Catrian-Fernández
Summary
COVID-19 is a type of coronavirus that has generated the largest health emergency in recent years. It generates mainly mild symptoms, such as fever, cough, and dyspnea. Nevertheless, it also produces severe results, which could lead to pneumonia and finally, death. Due to its high contagiousness rate, it has collapsed different health systems in developed countries such as the United States, Spain and Italy, which translates into more deaths. The conditions of dental care exponentially increase the risk of contagion and expansion of the disease, which is why it has been recommended to suspend elective dental care, leaving the dentist outside the health situation. Dentists have a medical training that allows them to be trained and redistributed, according to their competences and experiences, to different roles within the health team. Consequently, it would allow to maximize the performance and effectiveness of the health system, by helping to decongest it and as a result, to save lives.
KEY WORD: COVID-19, SARS-CoV2, dentist, health team.
How to cite this article
SANTOS-LÓPEZ, M, CATRIAN-FERNÁNDEZ, H. COVID-19 and the dentist’s new role in the health team. Int. J. Odontostomat., 14(3):288-295, 2020.