A to Z Steps of In-person Screening, Treatment, and Caring Procedure in Orthodontic Clinics During COVID-19 Pandemic:A Rapid Mini-review

Background: a novel coronavirus emerged from wuhan, china, in december 2019. dentalhealthcare providers are at the highest risk of exposure since the primary source of the virus issaliva, and dentists are the front-line personnel working with the oral cavity. since orthodontictreatment is a long-term procedure for children and teenagers, and because of the critical gap inpreparing a specific guideline on orthodontic treatment procedures, orthodontic practitionershave faced numerous complicated issues in this regard. this mini-review aimed to summarizethe facts that the orthodontic settings should be aware of the dental difficulties during covid-19with a particular focus on orthodontic treatment.methods: in this short review, electronic databases of medline, scopus, web of science, andgoogle scholar were searched for relevant articles and guidelines from january 2019 to march2021 using the following key terms: “covid-19,” “sars-cov-2,” “pandemic,” “orthodontics,”and “orthodontists.”results: gathering recommendations of experts and several guidelines led to the followingcrucial steps in orthodontic procedures: screening through a telehealth questionnaire; admittingjust patients into the dental center; ventilating the waiting room; measuring the temperatureof patients’ bodies; disinfecting the dental unit and instruments after each visit; using personalprotective equipment; washing hands; minimizing the use of high-speed handpieces to reducethe aerosol generation; and sterilization of archwires, orthodontic markers, photographicretractors, molar bands, burs, miniscrews, and unit waterline with proper methods.conclusions: all dentists should be up-to-date on cross-transmission of sars-cov-2 and followthe international infection control protocols as well as national/provincial/local guidelines andapply them to the regional settings after generalization and matching with the condition.