The novel Coronavirus pandemic defines a new risk for all dental practitioners, hygienists, and dental assistants. As an increasing number of dentists are now developing this disease, we wanted to provide some measures to manage this risk in the dental practice, by undergoing a review of the current literature. This minireview searches the literature for articles that both defined the infection risk in the dental practice and provided evidence on the efficacy of some procedures on reducing the infection risk. Several articles have already pointed out some necessary measures: fewer patients have to be admitted to the practice, a short triage should be carried out, and the appropriate measures of protection have to be used. On the basis of the literature collected, a short questionnaire and a flowchart is proposed to define the risk that each patient carries, and to appropriately adapt each procedure based on the patient’s risk. The literature is still limited on this subject, but on the basis of what is available, dental practices have to adapt to the situation in order to protect dental health professionals. Impact statement: Dentists have always been taught how to protect themselves and their patients from potential blood-borne pathogens, but the Coronavirus pandemic has brought a new unprecedented challenge to the world of dentistry; we therefore reviewed the literature to provide suggestions on how to accordingly change dental practice prevention.

Background: Nowadays, due to the esthetic and social demands of patients, conventional staged protocols seem to be increasingly replaced by faster, one-step protocols. The purpose of the present systematic review is to assess the peri-implant soft tissue changes after immediate implant placement and provisionalization (IIPP) comparing patients treated with or without a sub-epithelial connective tissue graft (SCTG) when replacing a single tooth in the esthetic region. Methods: The present systematic review was written following the PRISMA checklist. Immediate implants placed with a connective tissue graft and without one were compared. The researched primary outcomes were the mid-buccal mucosa level (MBML) facial soft tissue thickness (FSTT) and marginal bone loss (MBL). The weighted mean differences (WMD) were estimated for all three outcomes. Results: The change in the mid-buccal mucosa level in the intervention group was significantly higher (WMD 0.54; 95% CI 0.33–0.75), with no indication of heterogeneity (I² = 16%). The facial soft tissue thickness increased significantly in the intervention group (WMD 0.79; 95% CI 0.37–1.22). The marginal bone loss was significantly higher in the control group (WMD 0.13; 95% CI 0.07–0.18), with no indication of heterogeneity (I² = 0%). Conclusions: The results of the meta-analyses showed a statistically significant reduced change of the marginal bone loss and vestibular recession, as well as higher soft tissue thickness, when a graft was used. The included studies had a short observation time; therefore, studies with longer follow-ups are needed to confirm these findings.

Thanks to the use of new digital technologies and innovations in materials, there has been an increasing interest in subperiosteal implants. These implants are considered to be helpful for the rehabilitation of severe jaw atrophies, as they overcome some disadvantages of endosseous implantology. In the present clinical retrospective study, 18 patients were treated and the clinical outcomes of the treatment were recorded after 12 months of follow-up.

Angulated screw channels (ASC) allow the clinician to reposition the access hole of screw-retained restorations, improving the design of the rehabilitation and the esthetic outcome. Few clinical studies are available on the efficacy of these restorations, especially at longer follow-ups and with a large number of subjects. The objective of this study was therefore to retrospectively evaluate patients rehabilitated with screw-retained restorations using ASC. The time of delivery and their adherence to the maintenance program was obtained, as well as the characteristics of the restoration and of the patient’s occlusion; a Kaplan–Meier survival curve was then built to investigate the success rate of these restorations and the effects of several variables were evaluated with a Cox model. A total of 105 subjects and 162 implants were enrolled in this study; after 42 months a success rate (92%) similar to what is reported for conventional screw-retained restorations was encountered. Monolithic zirconia restorations (n = 52) had a higher success rate (95%) when compared to partially veneered restorations (n = 53), which suffered a higher number of complications (90%). The other variables had no statistically significant effect. Implant supported prostheses adopting ASC provide a favorable outcome both in the posterior and anterior regions and can therefore be adopted to treat cases where the implant angulation is unfavorable for a conventional screw-retained prosthesis.