COVID-19 and saliva: A primer for dental health care professionals

Abstract

To contain the COVID‐19 pandemic, it is essential to find methods that can be used by a wide range of health care professionals to identify the virus. The less potential contagious nature of the collection process, the ease of collection and the convenience of frequent collection for real‐time monitoring makes saliva an excellent specimen for home‐based collection for epidemiological investigations. With respect to COVID‐19, the use of saliva offers the added advantages of greater sensitivity and potential for detection at an early stage of infection.

However, the advantages from a diagnostic perspective also reflect the potential risk to dental professionals from saliva from infected patients. Although not validated in COVID‐19 patients, but by extension from studies of SARS‐CoV‐1 studies, it is suggested that using antimicrobial mouthrinses such as chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite solutions could reduce the viral load in saliva droplets and reduce the risk of direct transmission. Because large saliva droplets could deposit on inanimate surfaces, changing the personal protective equipment including the clinical gown, gloves, masks, protective eye wear and face shield between patients, as well as decontamination of the work surfaces in the clinic, could reduce the risk of indirect contact transmission.