Why guidelines for early childhood caries prevention could be ineffective amongst children at high risk

Advances in infection epidemiology and control in dental healthcare settings

“…Although there are no field/clinical trials to support this assertion, the incidence of infectious diseases directly attributable to dental healthcare workers and their low infection rates are a clearer support than the mere classical classification of the strength of scientific evidence, which requires doubleblind, randomized, controlled clinical trials 4 .…”

Antibody level and immunity against Hepatitis B virus infection among general dental practitioners

“…These guidelines are periodically updated, because an effective control of HBV transmission is unfeasible without an evidence based assessment of the risk for infection in dental healthcare settings 10 . This assessment is essential to understand that, for example, HBV transmission is unlikely through dental unit wa terlines, although oral fluid retraction is com mon during turbine use and microorganisms can be transmitted between patients through this route, despite turbine change or steriliza tion 11 ; or that effective dental healthcare work ers' immunization requires that guidelines are not imposed, but proposed, because the mere knowledge of the risk of HBV infection does not necessarily result in high compliance to ward guidelines 12,13 .…”

Effect of cleaning and disinfection on naturally contaminated clinical contact surfaces

“…Guidelines based on the precaution ary principle seek to produce a checklist of procedures and processes. These checklists are practical and applicable by inexperienced staff, but they could make dental healthcare workers less aware of which dental procedures yield the highest risk of transmission, because they may be received but not necessarily understood by dental healthcare workers 4 .…”