If a patient with a confirmed case of COVID-19 requires urgent/emergent dental treatment, that care should not be delivered in standard dental office. The dentist and the patient’s medical providers should work together to determine the appropriate precautions on a case-by-case basis: this coordinated approach is critical in order to ensure that the risk of potential spread of disease among patients, visitors, and staff is kept as low as possible.
Because dental settings are not typically designed to carry out all of the Transmission-Based Precautions that are recommended for hospital and other ambulatory care settings, dentists and medical providers will need to determine whether the facility is an appropriate setting for the necessary services for a potentially infectious patient. It may be necessary for treatment to be performed in a healthcare setting that offers the additional protections that should be maintained in these cases.