Effect of preprocedural oral rinses with active ingredients like chlorhexidine, povidone-iodine and cetylpyridinium chloride in neutralizing SARS-COV-2 concentration in aerosol

The havoc of COVID 19 pandemic, has created a situation of panic among the health care professionals and general population worldwide. The Virus being a droplet infection has increased the vulnerability of infection among the dental professionals, affecting the clinical practice. The patient being reluctant to visit the dentist due to fear of cross contamination in the dental office has reduced the patient in flow to a certain extent. Various measures have been suggested by the health authorities to avoid the transmission of the virus in the dental office. One such measure is the use of a preprocedural rinse. This acts as the need of the hour to reduce the virus transmission from the patients and prevent cross contamination in dental clinics. Various formulation of mouthwashes are used for preprocedural rinsing. The most common being chlorhexidine, povidone-iodine, cetypyridinium chloride and hydrogen peroxide. The antimicrobial property of these have also been found to be effective against severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2.  These ingredients in mouth washes are found to temporarily neutralize the virus load for certain amount of time in saliva and other oral fluids. Thus preprocedural rinse can reduce the risk of transmission of virus and can be used as an adjunct with air filters and PPE kits for prevention and protection from infection.