Sir, I write further to the letter Beards and masks (BDJ 2020; 228: 500) by K. Matharu. The author shares the concerns of those failing FFP3/FFP2 fit testing due to facial hair kept for religious or cultural reasons.
The requirement of advanced PPE appears to be the norm for the foreseeable future. Where a colleague wishes to maintain facial hair for religious or cultural reasons, but the local hospital/trust is unable to supply an alternative eg respirator hood, they are faced with a psychologically challenging dilemma. Furthermore, colleagues who have failed fit-testing due to their anatomy may also be faced with a similar predicament where the local trust is unable to provide a respirator hood.
Clinical activities for such colleagues will be limited to non-aerosol generating procedures. For colleagues in surgical training pathways, eg dental core training or middle-grade staff, this presents a further frustration: the specialty job application for oral surgery may ask how many surgical procedures they have carried out, and assign a score based on this. Colleagues who find themselves in the aforementioned predicaments may be disadvantaged. Should this element of the application process be revised?
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Rehman, I. Facial hair revisited . Br Dent J 229, 699–700 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2459-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-020-2459-9
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