Carolyn Patenaude, MSEd, BSRDH, CDA—a faculty member at Tunxis Community College in Farmington, Connecticut—is blogging for Decisions in Dentistry about COVID-19. December 2020 marked a hopeful turning point in the…

Pfizer, maker of one of the two currently approved COVID-19 vaccinations, has asked the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to adjust its vaccine’s required storage temperature from -112°F to -76°F to -13°F to -5°F. The new…

Dental schools in Scotland will not accept freshman in the fall of 2021 because the previous year’s classes will repeat the same coursework for another year.  This decision was made because dental educators did not feel that students…

To help ensure the financial viability of dental practices across the United States, the American Dental Association (ADA) has asked Congress to provide additional support during the COVID-19 pandemic. The ADA requested liability protection…

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that life expectancy has decreased by 1 year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Black and Latino Americans have fared even worse, experiencing declines of nearly 3…

A Minnesota investigation into the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variant B117—which originates from the United Kingdom—found the first cases in the state on January 25. Eight Minnesotans had been infected with the variant at that time; six got…

Results from the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health reveal that 40% of parents have not sought professional preventive oral healthcare services for their children since the start of the global pandemic. The…

A study of more 4,100 dentists and 1,860 dental assistants in France found that they were not at higher risk for COVID-19 than the general public, with the exception of specialties in which large amounts of aerosols were generated such as…

While there has been a plethora of good news regarding the COVID-19 pandemic—from declining case rates to increasing numbers of Americans being vaccinated—Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious…

For the third week in a row, the number of children diagnosed with COVID-19 has declined. During the week of January 29 to February 4, 118,000 new cases were found among children, down from 200,000 during the week of January 8 to 14. Thus…