In Clinical Leadership & Infection Control

Tech advances, advocacy needed before point-of-care COVID-19 testing will meet dental needs

The COVID-19 rapid antigen tests to which the FDA has granted emergency use authorization are not sufficient ways for dentists to decide which patients they can treat, because negative tests require confirmation from a polymerase chain reaction test, according to the California Dental Association.

The preliminary tests that the FDA has approved work best for symptomatic patients with highly detectable levels of the novel coronavirus in their bodies, but little is known about their accuracy in identifying asymptomatic COVID-19 cases, the CDA warned.

To improve COVID-19 screening for patients and staff, dentists should advocate for a rapid point-of-care test with results that do not require confirmatory testing, the CDA said. The association believes this type of screening is much safer than the methods dentists currently use, as each false negative poses an infection risk.

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