新冠肺炎疫情全球大流行，導致個人保護裝備(personal protective equipment)嚴重短缺，但在缺乏個人保護裝備的情形下，牙醫因使用鑽牙機或超音波等醫療器具造成空氣懸浮粒子的釋出；因此，牙醫被視為感染新冠肺炎的高風險族群。因此，建議在新冠肺炎疫情尚未被控制之前，民眾應暫緩停止定期牙醫檢查，若民眾有急性牙齒感染或口腔腫脹而有導致窒息的風險，仍應盡速就醫。此外，對於抗菌藥物的使用，應與牙醫師討論並評估利用其他方式處理的可行性，例如：使用視訊的方式給予諮詢，並建議應將牙醫列為為SARS-CoV-2病毒篩檢的優先族群，以降低其將病毒傳播給病人的可能性。

(財團法人國家衛生研究院 蔡慧如博士摘要整理)

During the initial phase of a pandemic, when a vaccine is not available, personal protective equipment (PPE) 1 plays a major part in disease control. Dental and oral surgery procedures using drills or ultrasonic devices cause aerosol release, and routine dentistry has therefore been suspended in several countries, including the UK, to reduce virus transmission. There is an urgent need for organised emergency dental care delivered by teams provided with appropriate PPE. 2 This also allows for redistribution of PPE to urgent care when there is inevitably an initial shortage and distribution challenge.

…

Author：Manas Dave,Noha Seoudi, Paul Coulthard, et al.
原文連結：https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30806-0/fulltext