It is now 5 days since Boris Johnson announced a change in the lockdownn measures. Notwithstanding the fact that he stated that where it was not possible to work from home, people should return to work, dental practices have NOT been given the go-ahead to open.
It is a recognised fact that as a profession we have a huge amount of expertise in cross-infection control, yet we are not allowed to resume seeing patients face to face despite the fact that many of our patients are currently in pain, or needing treatment. Current guidelines stop dentists from seeing patients in person.
It has been a very frustrating week overall. We have attended umpteen webinars to gain clarity on the matter, and every webinar you attend has a different opinion on the matter. Meanwhile our patients are not getting the help they need or deserve. The Urgent Care Centres have a very limited remit, which means that most patients cannot be seen.
To round the week off, the British Dental Association (BDA) released an update this morning: There was a meeting with the Office of the Chief Dental Officer for England. The session involved representatives from a wide variety of interested parties. There was a " recognition that care should be expanded as early as was safely possible." Furthermore "there were wide ranging discussions about the different potential approaches to developing service provision". Unfortunately no return to work date was set. The BDA further advises that the group is set to meet again next week, and they will "continue to push for clear communication of the roadmap to enable practices to plan for expanding care."
Once we are able to return to work, it will not be a wholesale return of "back to normal". The general consensus is that we will probably only be able to see patients with dental problems in the first instance. While it is all speculation, it seems likely that we will not be able to have more than one patient at a time in the practice. There will be extra screening measures in place, and slowly over the coming months we may return to some degree of normality. What is certain is that we will in all probability require a greater degree of PPE, and the question on everyone's lips is whether that will be available to us, and at what cost. We have seen the price of basic PPE which we have always used skyrocket!
In the meantime the mantra of wash your hands still stands. To that mantra you should add AND BRUSH YOUR TEETH. Studies relating oral hygiene to ventilator status show that without a doubt your chances of survival once you are on a ventilator are also linked to oral health among other underlying conditions. So it seems the four most important minutes of your day could be the two minutes you spend brushing your teeth in the morning and again in the evening!
