Dental Workers Have Increased Risk Of Long COVID Symptoms: Study Revealed

Dentists' safety is an essential factor in clinic work that has often not been discussed enough. And today is this very day!

Except for obvious hygienical recommendations such as gloves and proper sanitizing of work surfaces and tools, there are other important factors – viruses. A few years ago, humanity "discovered" a new dangerous pathogen – COVID-19, which is specifically dangerous for healthcare workers, considering that they are working with dozens of patients daily and may be exposed to the virus for a long period of time, increasing the chance of severe disease cases.

A recent study by a German research group shows that dentists are apparently at particular risk among all healthcare workers in the context of COVID-19. Let's review their insights.

Research context

This year, a group of international scientists published a systematic review of studies regarding the increased risk of COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers. A total of 6481 participants were surveyed, and researchers found that the prevalence of long-term COVID symptoms was 26% (in studies that included 12-month follow-ups). The most common manifestations are:

fatigue – 35% of surveyed
neurologic problems – 25%
loss of smell or taste – 25%

In the study's conclusion, researchers highlight that clinic owners must provide healthcare workers affected by long-term COVID-19 with appropriate rest.

What about dentistry?

In a subsequent study conducted in Germany, researchers surveyed 186 teams from various dental facilities and found that, after 2021, more than 54.7% of them had at some point suffered from COVID, and 22% of this group had long-term infection symptoms. Additionally, the research discovered that a particular group of dental practices has different vulnerabilities to long COVID:

The highest prevalence was observed among dental assistants – 48.5%
Dentists – 36.4%
Dental hygienists – 15.2%

Also, the study found that vaccinated clinicians have a 10% lower risk of getting infected in dental practice. Thus, this work particularly highlights the importance of providing all possible prevention measures for dental workers to ensure the team's and patients' safety.

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