IADR Abstract Archives
Causal Effect of Working in Closed Operatories on COVID-19 Risk.
Objectives: In Canada, during the pandemic, the provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan were the only jurisdictions to require all aerosol-generating procedures performed by dental professionals to occur in closed operatories. This regulation included educational settings such as dental schools. The aim of our analyses was to estimate the causal effect of: i) closed operatory spaces; and ii) practicing in the provinces of Ontario or Saskatchewan on the risk of COVID-19 infection among licensed dental professionals.
Methods: During the pandemic, we performed three prospective cohort studies in Canada to investigate the risk of COVID-19 infection among; i) dentists practicing in the community (August-2020-to-October-2021); ii) dental hygienists in the community (December-2020-to-January-2022); and iii) workers in Canadian dental schools (April-2021-to-April-2022). The primary outcome in all studies was self-reported COVID-19 infection. Multiple other sociodemographic and living-, work- and health-related variables were collected. All data were collected using the same standardized online questionnaire, at monthly intervals. For analyses reported here, we used data from licensed dental professionals, thereby excluding trainees in the dental school cohort. We used Bayesian additive regression trees adjusting for age, sex, province of practice and practicing in the community or not, to estimate the causal effect of the exposures of interest.
Results: A sample of 1,688 practicing dental professionals was used for the analyses. On average, working in a closed operatory reduced the risk of COVID-19 infections by 1.26 percentage points (RD=-1.26; 95%CrI = -3.26 to 0.65) compared to open or semi-open operatories, and practicing in Ontario or Saskatchewan reduced the risk of COVID-19 infections by 2.22 points (RD=-2.22; 95%CrI = -4.03 to -0.29), compared to other provinces.
Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that policies of closed operatories during the pandemic can reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection among dental professionals working in Canada.
Methods: During the pandemic, we performed three prospective cohort studies in Canada to investigate the risk of COVID-19 infection among; i) dentists practicing in the community (August-2020-to-October-2021); ii) dental hygienists in the community (December-2020-to-January-2022); and iii) workers in Canadian dental schools (April-2021-to-April-2022). The primary outcome in all studies was self-reported COVID-19 infection. Multiple other sociodemographic and living-, work- and health-related variables were collected. All data were collected using the same standardized online questionnaire, at monthly intervals. For analyses reported here, we used data from licensed dental professionals, thereby excluding trainees in the dental school cohort. We used Bayesian additive regression trees adjusting for age, sex, province of practice and practicing in the community or not, to estimate the causal effect of the exposures of interest.
Results: A sample of 1,688 practicing dental professionals was used for the analyses. On average, working in a closed operatory reduced the risk of COVID-19 infections by 1.26 percentage points (RD=-1.26; 95%CrI = -3.26 to 0.65) compared to open or semi-open operatories, and practicing in Ontario or Saskatchewan reduced the risk of COVID-19 infections by 2.22 points (RD=-2.22; 95%CrI = -4.03 to -0.29), compared to other provinces.
Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that policies of closed operatories during the pandemic can reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection among dental professionals working in Canada.