Continuing Education: Breathing Easy by Karen Daw

Observing good respiratory hygiene during ordinary—and extraordinary—times

Short course description
This course covers respiratory hygiene best practices and recommendations for dental health care personnel, including suggested protocols to follow when treating emergency patients during a viral outbreak.

Abstract
While COVID-19 is foremost in our minds right now, respiratory infections of all kinds lead to thousands of deaths every year in the United States. Proper respiratory hygiene can help lessen the spread of these infections, especially during an outbreak.
Mitigating the dangers associated with influenza is a good place to start with any respiratory hygiene plan, and may help to protect your team from other and future aerosol-transmitted diseases.
This course covers respiratory hygiene best practices and recommendations for dental health care personnel, including suggested protocols to follow when treating emergency patients during a viral outbreak.

Educational objectives
Upon completion of this course, the participant should be able to achieve the following:

• Understand the CDC-recommended processes for first points of content with potentially infected patients.
• Understand the American Dental Association’s definition of dental procedures that qualify as “emergency dentistry.”
• Understand the ADA’s recommended processes and cautions when treating emergency patients.
• Understand the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s basic infection prevention measures for most workers.
• Understand the CDC-recommended processes for the use of face masks during “conventional capacity,” “contingency capacity” and “crisis capacity.”

View This Course