Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the scientific evidence used to inform the guidance requiring dentists to leave a gap of one hour between patients.

The Government’s initial infection prevention and control (IPC) guidance was developed by health protection and IPC experts in collaboration with clinicians. Expert reviews and advice from the Department’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group informed this guidance.

The original IPC guidance for dental teams, which was published in the NHS England and NHS Improvement standard operating procedure (SOP) was a summary of the COVID-19 IPC guidance.

The guidance for dental teams contained within the SOP has been replaced by an appendix to current main IPC guidance and provides updated post aerosol generating procedure downtime based on recommendations from the Scottish Dental Clinical Effectiveness Programme.