Digital Impressions and In-Office CAD/CAM: A Review of Best Practices and What's to Come.

Advancements in digital dentistry technology continue to change how dentists work. The recent onset of COVID-19 has presented new challenges to dentists by prompting renewed priorities such as providing patients with peace of mind, controlling and reducing contamination risks, and increasing treatment efficiency to boost productivity and profitability. Digital technologies such as intraoral scanners and in-office CAD/CAM systems are, in many ways, the ideal tools to use in meeting these new challenges, and thus dentists are turning to digital methods faster than ever before.

Direct Exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and Cigarette Smoke Increases Infection Severity and Alters the Stem Cell-Derived Airway Repair Response.

Current smoking is associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19, but it is not clear how cigarette smoke (CS) exposure affects SARS-CoV-2 airway cell infection. We directly exposed air-liquid interface (ALI) cultures derived from primary human nonsmoker airway basal stem cells (ABSCs) to short term CS and then infected them with SARS-CoV-2. We found an increase in the number of infected airway cells after CS exposure with a lack of ABSC proliferation. Single-cell profiling of the cultures showed that the normal interferon response was reduced after CS exposure with infection. Treatment of CS-exposed ALI cultures with interferon ß-1 abrogated the viral infection, suggesting one potential mechanism for more severe viral infection. Our data show that acute CS exposure allows for more severe airway epithelial disease from SARS-CoV-2 by reducing the innate immune response and ABSC proliferation and has implications for disease spread and severity in people exposed to CS.