COVID-19 can be transferred via aerosols. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, dental practitioners, supporting clinical staff and clinical-year dental students are directly exposed to aerosols produced during dental treatment. Thus, the Faculty of Dentistry of Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) developed dental guidelines that included a standard operating procedure for clinical settings. This study aimed to assess the adherence of clinical staff and students to dental guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate the nature and extent of difficulties encountered by the faculty members in complying with the guidelines. The dental guidelines were explained to all faculty members, and then an audit form was developed on the basis of the guidelines. A series of clinical audits was conducted on a weekly basis. Afterwards, a survey was conducted to investigate any problems faced by dental clinical staff and students in terms of complying with the guidelines. The percentage of noncompliance to wearing goggles and face shields during dental procedures was 7.1% and 2.1%, respectively. Amongst 128 respondents, 84.1% reported unclear vision due to the fogging of the goggles, whereas 45.2% reported blurred vision when goggles and face shields were worn together. Moreover, approximately 30.2% of the respondents claimed that KN95 masks contribute to difficulty in breathing. Nevertheless, most of the dental clinical staff and students were compliant to the dental guidelines. Noncompliance was mainly caused by the fogging issue when wearing goggles. Thus, this issue should be tackled to prevent the impairment of treatment quality.

Objective: During the pandemic COVID-19, a paradigm shift in dental education must be made. Physical teaching and clinical practical must be done in online manner to avoid close contact. An online orthodontics screening application is needed to cater during this misfortunate event. Thus, the objective of this study is to develop an online orthodontic screening for dental education and to assess the effective of the apps. Methods: The development of online application was done using non-coding software provided by independent website. The online orthodontic screening consists of patient detail, extraoral examination, intraoral examination, summary and treatment plan. All dental specialists in USIM orthodontics clinic (orthodontist) were invited to answer several questions regarding the apps and undergoes the trial run. Results: All subjects were in agreement regarding the details of patient, extraoral examination and intraoral examination except for the third molar condition and teeth rotation. The decision on the IOTN and the problem list also have some contention, however the variation is accepted as a preference by the specialist. Conclusion: This study has demonstrated the ability of online dental education as a teaching tools and method in the COVID-19 pandemic era. It can be used as an additional aid and alternative to normal psychical classroom.

This research is a randomized controlled trial to compare the effectiveness of plaque removal between manual conventional and orthodontic toothbrushes in patients having fixed orthodontic treatment using Orthodontic Plaque Index (OPI). This study was conducted by two orthodontists at USIM Specialist Dental Clinic with almost perfect agreement level (Kappa score: 0.95). A total of 58 orthodontic patients were divided into 2 groups; first group were patients given manual conventional toothbrush (CTB) and the other were given orthodontic toothbrush (OTB). Consent obtained, and participants were instructed to follow standardized specific oral hygiene care regimes. Orthodontic Plaque Index (OPI) was then recorded during baseline(V0), 1 month (V1), 2 months (V2), and 3 months (V3) reviews for all participants. Out of 58 patients, only 26 participants (5 male and 21 female) completed the 3 review visits. Median values were used as data was not normally distributed. At baseline, both OTB and CTB group median values were 2.00±1.00. At first month review, V1 the median values for both groups maintained at 2.00±0.00. The same values maintained at second month review, V2 where OTB was 2.00±0.00 and CTB was 2.00±1.00. During last review visit, V3 the median values for OTB was 2.00±1.00 and CTB was 2.00±0.00. Overall mean values were 1.94 (SD=0.42) for the OTB group and 2.02 (SD=0.49) for CTB group. The mean’s significant differences of OPI score between two groups was compared using Mann Whitney's U test and the resulted p value was found to be insignificant (p>0.05) where p-value for OTB is 0.42 and p= 0.65 for CTB group. These results suggested that there were no significant differences in plaque removal ability between OTB and CTB in patients undergoing fixed orthodontic treatment.