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.

Al-Quran and Hadith is the paramount reference for problems solving, regardless of the place, condition and time range. Texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah mostly are of general in nature to facilitate its application in the general principles and substitute issues of laws. These general principles will ease the legal fiqh consideration in the clinical management of Orofacial Cleft. Orofacial Cleft is craniofacial birth defects involving every 700 - 1000 live births. The aim of this study is to evaluate the current fatwas in the treatment of Orofacial Cleft and discuss the principles of fiqh related to Orofacial Cleft that can be used as guidance for the medical and dental practitioners. Information regarding these issues is gathered through the study of fatwas, books of fiqh and medicine as well as reference to scholars of fiqh and Orofacial Cleft. As a conclussion, the principles of fiqh including Al-Darurat Tubihu al-Mahzurat, Al-Darurat Tuqaddaru Biqadariha and Al-Umur Bimaqasidiha are applicable as guideline in the treatment of Orofacial Cleft.

The aim of this study was to obtain data of medical emergencies at the non-hospital based private dental practices in Petaling district of Selangor, Malaysia. Ninety out of 281 identified main practitioners of non-hospital based private dental practices had agreed to participate. A standardised questionnaire forms consisting of four parts including demographic data, emergency equipment and drugs available, occurrence of medical emergencies and training of dental practitioners. All data retrieved were analysed using the Statistical Programme for Social Science (SPSS) version 22.0 (SPSS Inc., 1999). Some of the clinics (28.9%) had reported experiencing medical emergencies events. The most common emergency event noted was syncope (42.2%), followed by hypoglycaemia (27.7%). Majority of the events occurred in the dental surgery room (84.3%), after completion of treatment (31.3%) and were associated with dental extraction procedures (61.4%). Only nine of the clinics (3.3%) were equipped with emergency trolley and none were prepared with a defibrillator or automated external defibrillator (AED). It was also found that 32.3% of all clinics do not have any emergency drugs. All of the practitioners received basic life support training before graduation and 52.2% received supplementary training after graduation. In conclusion, emergency medical events do occur, but majority of dental practices involved in this study were not well equipped to manage these emergencies. It is important to have a standardised national guideline to ensure a safe and well-prepared dental setting during any adverse medical events.