“New Normal” Radiology

Abstract

ABSTRACT: COVID-19, the most recent and globally impactful zoonotic viral pandemic in the last 20 years, has now entered its third year. As the global dental profession returns to providing as full a range of services as possible, in addition to embedding the new infection-control processes that were developed for this pandemic, it should also take full advantage of digital conventional radiology (intraoral, extraoral, and panoramic radiography) and cone-beam computed tomography. Regardless of vaccinations, new or yet-to-manifest variants, and testing, some dentists may be working in communities where the asymptomatic but potentially infectious patient poses a real risk. This needs to be met with not only the whole COVID-19 panoply the dentist is already too familiar with but also the need to minimise aerosol generation production by dental radiography. A flowchart and a table that compares the attributes of the above modalities are included.

Keywords

• COVID-19
• Radiology
• Radiography
• Cone-beam computed tomography