b'COVID and Private Dental Clinics in Saudi ArabiaIn Saudi Arabia, a survey was conducted to assess COVID awareness and precautions taken in dental practice. 88% of those surveyed reported that they were taking patients temperatures before treating them. 91.5% said that they were cleaning surfaces COVID-19 in dentistry around the globe within the practice after treating a patient. 82.5% said that they were recommended that patients postpone The AAP community extends beyond the U.S. and includes members from all overnon-emergency treatments. the world. As the COVID pandemic has affected everyone, Periospectives looked into how dental practices in three countries have been impacted by the virus. In a screening questionnaire for patients, 67% of patients said that the dental clinics they visited COVID and Private Dental Clinics in Japan were showing good adherence to recommendations On April 16, 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the Japaneseprescribed by the Ministry of Health and two-thirds government made a national emergency declaration for seven prefectures whichstated that dental reception areas were demonstrating included Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hyogo, and Fukuoka. proper COVID guidelines.In addition to the challengesSAVE the DATEpresented by COVID, as of February 2021, there are In the same month, the Hyogo Medical Practitioners Association News Paper4,000 Saudi dentists currently out of work. Of this surveyed 180 dental clinics in the Hyogo prefecture. In the study, dental clinicsnumber, 3,000 are recent graduates.reported a 47.6% decrease in the number of patients seen likely due to caution on the part of patients in observing the governments recommendation to put offHowever, the demand for dentists has not waned. non-urgent treatments. Not surprisingly this had an adverse impact on the financesAs Asim Arab, chairman of the national committee and employment at private dental clinics but was successful in reducing the spreadfor consultancies at the Council of Chambers of of the virus among dentists, their staff, and patients.Commerce, explained, Many hospitals do not have the required number of dentists. He said these To increase the amount of people being tested, dentists in Japan beganfacilities must hire citizens rather than expatriates. Registration is now open!administering nose and throat swab samples. There are currently 2,525 expatriate dentists workingVisit am2021.perio.orgBy the end of 2020, Japan health officials reported more than 201,000 infectionsat government dental clinics. There are 3,500 dentists and 2,965 fatalities. Nine medical groups, including national associations forrequired for 2,280 health centers in the Kingdom.dentists issued a joint statement urging the government to provide increased assistance for frontline medical workers. The spread of the coronavirus infection shows no signs of stopping. Left unchecked, people in Japan will not be able toOnline continuing educationreceive regular medical care, let alone care for COVID-19.Have you visited the AAP e-Learning COVID and Private Dental Clinics in SpainCenter recently? In Spain, healthcare workers were hit hard by the pandemic with over 50,000New content is added regularly and healthcare professionals becoming infected. Many of these cases and the resultingprovides a quick, cost effective (courses fatalities were the result of limited access to personal protective equipment andstart at just $49 USD) way to stay on top of limited information on COVID protocols. the latest periodontal information and learn Fortunately, none of these reported cases came from dental practices. The risksfrom global thought leaders in periodontics. for dental professionals were mitigated as they were instructed to only treat dentalCourse content includes: emergencies and cases were pre-screened over the phone.An entire COVID educational seriesBy February of 2021, the death toll in Spain from COVID had reached 63,704.Information on the updated periodontal With the arrival of the British vaccine produced by AstraZeneca, Spains Healthand peri-implant disease classifications - Ministry had to shift from their original plan of prioritizing the elderly as the vaccine An overview of the AAPs Best Evidence is only approved for people aged 18 to 55. Instead, the vaccine is planned to goConsensus on Changing Gingival to pharmacists, dentists, and physiotherapists, as well as professionals such asPhenotypepolice, military, firefighters, paramedics, and schoolteachers. As of February, nearly 900,000 people had received the vaccine. Visit the e-Learning Center at perio.org forThe Academy is closely monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure the utmost more information.safety of all 2021 Annual Meeting attendees. Program schedule and content is subject to change. Stay tuned to am2021.perio.org for the latest information. AAP Periospectives| 28102378_AAOP.indd28 3/18/212:36 PM'