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Since the emergence of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19), profound alterations in general and specialist dental practice have been imposed to provide safe dental care. The guidelines introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate healthcare disruption are inconsistent regarding the dental practice re-installation, particularly during a transitional time. Despite the successful mass vaccination campaigns rolled out in 2021, the presence of more than 80 genotypes of COVID-19, rapid neutralisation of antibodies within a short period of seropositivity, and the likelihood of recurrent infection raise some doubts on whether vaccination alone will provide long-term immunity against COVID-19 and its variants. Here, from this perspective, we aim to provide an initial proposal for dental services reinstallation, easily applicable in various care settings. We discuss the potential options for the transition of dental services, as well as challenges and opportunities to adapt to new circumstances after mass COVID-19 vaccination. The proposal of the universal three-tier system of dental services resumption, determined by regional COVID-19 rates, testing accessibility, and vaccination rollout has been presented. Following herd COVID-19 immunity enhancement, it would be prudent to confer various preventative measures until virus spread naturally diminishes or becomes less virulent. Based on modelling data, dental practices may not return to normal, routine operation even after global vaccination as there would still be a significant risk of outbreaks of infection. Variable, multi-level measures will still be required, depending on the local COVID-19 cases rate, to secure safe dental care provision, despite predicted success of vaccination agendas. This approach can be implemented by achievable, practical means as a part of risk assessment, altered work pattern, and re-arrange of dental surgery facilities. The adequate standard operating procedure, with the support of rapid point-of-care testing at workplace, would vastly intensify the uninterrupted recovery of the dental care sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SARS-CoV-2 is responsible for a highly contagious infection, known as COVID-19. SARS-CoV-2 was discovered in late December 2019 and, since then, has become a global pandemic. Timely and accurate COVID-19 laboratory testing is an essential step in the management of the COVID-19 outbreak. To date, assays based on the reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in respiratory samples are the gold standard for COVID-19 diagnosis. Unfortunately, RT-PCR has several practical limitations. Consequently, alternative diagnostic methods are urgently required, both for alleviating the pressure on laboratories and healthcare facilities and for expanding testing capacity to enable large-scale screening and ensure a timely therapeutic intervention. To date, few studies have been conducted concerning the potential utilization of rapid testing for COVID-19, with some conflicting results. Therefore, the present systematic review and meta-analysis was undertaken to explore the feasibility of rapid diagnostic tests in the management of the COVID-19 outbreak. Based on ten studies, we computed a pooled sensitivity of 64.8% (95%CI 54.5–74.0), and specificity of 98.0% (95%CI 95.8–99.0), with high heterogeneity and risk of reporting bias. We can conclude that: (1) rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 are necessary, but should be adequately sensitive and specific; (2) few studies have been carried out to date; (3) the studies included are characterized by low numbers and low sample power, and (4) in light of these results, the use of available tests is currently questionable for clinical purposes and cannot substitute other more reliable molecular tests, such as assays based on RT-PCR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]