BEECHWOOD DENTAL COVID-19 PROTOCOL:

(for more information on What Constitutes a Dental Emergency, click here)

• Pre appointment, by phone: Patient needs are assessed and appointment made if necessary. Consent requested to take Patient temperature and may have short wait for surgery to be set up. Treatment cost taken over phone to reduce contact with credit cards and credit card machines. Before session starts all present; dentist, nurse and receptionist all record temperatures.
• Doors are opened and closed by staff so patient doesn’t have to touch handle.
• Patient waits in lobby of practice: on arrival patient hand sanitizes & has temp taken and recorded by dentist who is wearing scrubs &  gloves.
• If normal, Patient proceeds into waiting area. Patients will be required to observe social distancing in waiting rooms and therefore may be asked to seated in different parts of the building. We have 4 waiting areas.
• Dentist (see image) and nurse change into the PPE gear that we have available:

• • Sterile Surgical gowns
  • Surgical hair net
  • Protective eye wear or loupes
  • FFP3 mask
  • All then covered with industrial type Perspex protective face mask
  • Latex gloves.

Surgery set up: disposable covers on suction and drill hose and sticky covers on handles, x-rays, lights etc.

• Patient called to surgery. Before treatment Patient should rinse with hydrogen peroxide if available (or Corsodyl which will debride the mouth before treatment).
• Only pain treated: 1st stage root canal where the nerve is removed, extractions, temporary dressings or scripts. It is our motivation to remove pain, whilst creating none, or as little as possible, aerosol during treatment.
• Both high volume aspirators used if high speed used, preference would be to used micromotor slow speed dry. Rubber dam, and drill run dry if possible. Temporary glass ionomer filling material mostly used to reduce aerosol creation.

• Patient leaves. A further appointment will probably not be made at this stage. Depending on the treatment provided, a top-up payment may be required.

• The surgery is then completely wiped down & window opened to ventilate. Gowns off and into autoclave.
• We then move to another surgery and start again.We rotate use of surgeries. We are fortunate to have 7 surgeries but are only using  3 or 4. When we get back to the first surgery it is wiped down again as aerosol will have settled on work surfaces and equipment.

• Before going home dentist and nurse change into regular clothes and scrubs in a bag. Shower when you get home and scrubs into wash.

This is a time consuming and convoluted process when you compare it to how we all usually work, and we see only one patient an hour to avoid rushing and making mistakes. We have 2 teams and work alternate days.