Scrubbing Wipes to Dislodge Dental Biofilm Can Remove and Inactivate Viruses from Tooth Surface: Perspectives for Covid-19 Prevention

Poor dental hygiene and periodontitis have been associated with increased risk of admission to intensive care units, assisted ventilation, and death in COVID-19 patients. Consistent with this, chlorhexidine-based mouth washes have been suggested to limit virus spread, as they can transiently decrease the virus load in saliva. However, no data are available on the potential effectiveness of wipe-scrubbing procedures on virus removal/inactivation from tooth surface. Here, as a proof of concept, teeth were artificially contaminated in vitro with human coronavirus 229E or herpes simplex virus type 1 and scrubbed with wipes routinely used to dislodge oral biofilm. The results showed that 30-second wipe-scrubbing removed almost completely viruses from tooth surface, and that 0.12% chlorhexidine-soaked wipes inactivated >99% of the removed viruses, suggesting that this procedure may potentially limit SARS-CoV-2 penetration into the deeper airways and reduce the emission of contaminated droplets. This simple maneuver may be considered as a potentially effective tool against the spread of COVID-19 or other virus-induced diseases and pave the way for clinical studies to prove its effectiveness in virus removal from the oral cavity of COVID-19 patients, as a potential tool for infection control.