Well, we’ve arrived! It’s the time we have all been waiting for! In many states, Governors are slowly opening up the economy which means dentistry returns - but how?
Hurry up and wait! That’s the worst! Dentists are eager to return to practice, but what does dentistry look like post-coronavirus? Many editorials written by well known publications like the New York Times article highlighting: “Workers Who Face the Greatest Coronavirus Risk”, published, March 15th, 2020 (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/15/business/economy/coronavirus-worker-risk.html) exasperate problems. For Pete’s sake, we know! Every dentist knows that aerosols are created in their practice. What are you going to do about it?
As of Thursday, May 8th, 2020, as many as 22 states have already been allowed dental practices to reopen for routine visits. How are they doing this? The Centers For Disease Control issued a position statement April 8th, 2020 and revised April 27th, 2020 “Services should be limited to emergency visits only during this period of the pandemic. These actions help staff and patients stay safe, preserve personal protective equipment and patient care supplies, and expand available health system capacity.”
No one yet knows what dental practices will look like post-coronavirus. According to ADA News, in an article dated Wednesday, May 6th, 2020 by Jennifer Garvin, “The American Dental Association is urging the Centers For Disease Control to ‘quickly provide guidance’ on how to safely reopen dental practices during the deceleration phase of the Covid-19 outbreak”
We can’t wait for the CDC. We’ll need to work with their eventual guidelines (and maybe mandates), but we’ve got to get our patients in the office and in the chair NOW.
And if we do it right, we may be ahead of the CDC curve regardless. In light of this, our team - including DE’s Director of Clinical Training, the Leadership Team at Dr. Ahearn’s two practices, our Practice Design team, and yours truly, have been working non-stop, writing Standard Operating Guidance Procedures. We hope to have these available late next week and are feverishly developing a consulting curriculum to help you open your practice safely - and keep it that way! We are preparing for what we believe will be the standard of care moving forward.
And beyond plans, protocols and strategies, Dr. Ahearn and the engineers at Ergonomic Products have been working overtime on new products to protect you and YOUR team. You can count on us to develop incredible solutions that will guide you through the challenges of reopening your dental practice - and create a safe environment for tomorrow and well beyond.
