Surveillance of COVID-19 cases associated with dental settings using routine health data from the East of Scotland with a description of efforts to break chains of transmission from October 2020 to December 2021

Introduction

Dental settings have been considered high risk setting s for COVID-19. A Dental Public Health Team in South East Scotland have worked to risk assess the situation timeously to break chains of transmission.

Aim

To present routine data produced from a contact tracing service for COVID-19 cases in the dental setting with a focus on transmission.

Design

Observational retrospective analysis of a routine data set of COVID-19 cases associated with a dental setting reported via the national contact tracing system for two health board areas in the east of Scotland.

Methods

COVID-19 cases were confirmed by PCR testing. Descriptive statistics are used to summarise the data collected over a 13-month period (Oct 2020-Dec 2021). A narrative presents themes identified during contact tracing that led to transmission within a dental setting and includes a case study.

Results

A total of 811 incidents are included. No evidence of staff to patient transmission or vice versa was found in this study. Staff to staff transmission occurred in non-clinical areas contributing to 33% of total staff cases.

Conclusion

Transmission of COVID-19 in a dental setting in the context of this study appears to be confined to non-clinical areas. Future pandemic plans should include tools to aid with implementation of guidance in non-clinical areas.

In brief points

• Outbreaks of COVID-19 in a dental setting appear to be confined to the non-clinical areas of dental practices.

• We have found no evidence of staff to patient transmission or vice versa using our contact tracing methods.

• Future pandemic preparedness would benefit from including current quality improvement tools to aid with implementation of new standard operating procedures and other regularly changing guidance.