Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, many adults faced barriers to receiving oral health care, increasing their risk of infection and the need for emergency hospital visits. And now, as unmet dental needs worsen while the pandemic lingers and people suffer the loss of jobs and dental insurance, provid...
CHICAGO (Feb. 12, 2021) – The American Dental Association (ADA) has been tracking developments of tongue and mouth issues COVID-19 patients experience since early on in the pandemic. Oral health is an important and vital part of overall health, and the ADA is continuing to examine the connection bet...
Even before COVID-19 inexorably changed social and clinical protocols, dental offices dealt with patients who claimed to “know better” than their providers when it came to health risks. From unvaccinated patients to incomplete health histories, failure to cooperate results in ethical and legal chall...
The relationship between oral health and overall health has been well established for many comorbidities including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
We are still learning about COVID-19 and how it affects people living with HIV. Based on limited data, people with HIV who are on effective HIV treat...
CHICAGO, Oct. 15, 2020 — Although assumed to be at high risk for COVID-19, fewer than one percent of dentists nationwide were found to be COVID-19 positive, according to a first-of-its-kind report in the U.S. based on data collected in June 2020. The result is far below that of other health professi...
With the number of Coronavirus cases surpassing 7.3 million and 210,000 deaths in the United States, dental offices continue to be faced with shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). Surge capacity refers to the ability to manage a sudden increase in patient volume that would severely chall...
Highlights from the NIH Directors Blog (9/3/20), by Dr. Francis Collins
Among the many longer-term health problems that have been associated with COVID-19 are shortness of breath, fatigue, cognitive issues, erratic heartbeat, gastrointestinal issues, low-grade fever, intolerance to physical or mental...
Recommendations and Reports / July 24, 2020 / 69(6);1–8
Exposure to hepatitis viruses is a recognized occupational risk for health care personnel (HCP). This report establishes new U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance that includes recommendations for a testing algorithm and...
As the global battle to understand and eliminate the coronavirus continues, a new study published in the Journal of Dental Research demonstrates that testing of oropharyngeal secretions (OS) may reduce the number of false-negative results from nasal swab testing of patients who have seemingly recove...
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated interim infection prevention and control guidance for dental settings during the COVID-19 response on May 19, 2020, very similar to science-based guidance issued earlier in May by the American Dental Association (ADA).
“Oral health is a...
The emergence of chronic disease complications in controlled HIV disease has changed the landscape of HIV clinical care. HIV infection confers an increased cardiovascular disease risk which is thought to be due to a complex interplay of mechanistic factors. While traditional cardiovascular risk fact...
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) has been very successful at preserving immune function and controlling opportunistic infections among individuals infected with HIV. Oral mucosal diseases associated with advanced immunosuppression, including candidiasis and hairy leukoplakia, are significantly less comm...
Southern states today account for an estimated 44 percent of all people with an HIV diagnosis in the U.S.,[1] despite having only about one-third (37%) of the overall U.S. population. Diagnosis rates for people in the South are higher than for Americans overall. Eight of the 10 states with the highe...
HPV oral and oropharyngeal cancers are more difficult to detect than tobacco-related cancers because the symptoms are not always obvious to an individual, and health professionals may lack the education and background to diagnose HPV-related lesions. Although there are many adjunctive oral cancer sc...
I often get this question from non-dental personnel including case managers, physician assistants, nurses, and nurse practitioners. The following is a short list of questions you can ask patients to guide dental referrals for emergency care:
A recent study that was conducted among 1200 HIV patient of whom 600 each belonged to with ART and without ART and the occurrence of oral candidiasis and oral hairy leukoplakia. This study shows that oral candidiasis and leukoplakia was less among patients on ART as well as a decrease in the number...
The question I most commonly get asked by oral health providers is...
Do I pre-medicate patients based on a high viral load and low CD4 count?
There is no supporting data to support the need for routine antibiotic coverage pre or post dental treatment based on the CD4 or viral load. Antibiotic use in...
It is estimated that 1.1 million people in the United States are infected with HIV. Of those, 1 in 7 do not know they are infected.[1] The number of new HIV diagnoses fell 19% from 2005 to 2014.[1] Because HIV testing rates have remained stable or increased in recent years, this decrease in diagnose...
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services currently recommends that every person with HIV begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) as soon as possible after diagnosis. Increased availability of testing and treatment along with the above guidelines have reduced the number of new HIV infections by 18...
According to a new study published in the Journal Annals of Internal Medicine, one in nine American men is infected with the oral form of the human papillomavirus (HPV). Nationwide, rates of oral HPV infection are 11.5% of men vs. 3.2% women. HPV 16, the most common type of high-risk HPV and known t...