Staff Reporter
With oral healthcare severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the risk involved for both dental professionals and patients, a Central University of Technology (CUT) academic has helped in establishing guidelines for the sector to navigate the crisis effectively.
Dr Jeanné Oosthuizen, a senior lecturer in dental assisting at the Free State institution, is one of the experts who drafted the safety protocol that was recently published by the South African Dental Association in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Titled “Infection Control Guidelines for Oral Healthcare South Africa” (Oosthuysen J, Potgieter E and Fossey A, 2020), the safety protocol guides dental practices on how to operate safely and manage patient workflow.
“What started as a small interest group of oral healthcare in dental implantology soon escalated to not only formulate a scholarly lawful and evidence-based document, but also consider all the specific dental specialities, as well as all socio-economic groups in our country,” Oosthuizen said.
“At one stage we had 500 dentists and other members of the oral healthcare team working together in simultaneous streams to formulate a document to define the work of oral healthcare professionals after the initial COVID-19 lockdown.
“Oral health is an integral part of overall health and during these challenging times to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is even more true.”
Over the years, the respected CUT lecturer has focused on teaching, presenting and consulting with oral healthcare teams on dentistry, preventive dentistry, higher education, curriculum development, infection prevention and control, compliance, dental assisting and topics of oral hygiene and dental assisting.