Urgent dental care for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic – The Lancet

 

The Lancet Vol.395 | Number 10232 | Apr 18, 2020

During the initial phase of a pandemic, when a vaccine is not available, personal protective equipment (PPE) plays a major part in disease control. Dental and oral surgery procedures using drills or ultrasonic devices cause aerosol release, and routine dentistry has therefore been suspended in several countries, including the UK, to reduce virus transmission. There is an urgent need for organised emergency dental care delivered by teams provided with appropriate PPE. This also allows for redistribution of PPE to urgent care when there is inevitably an initial shortage and distribution challenge.Timely and major reorganisation of dental care services is challenging. Early management of acute dental emergencies is important to avert patients from Accident and Emergency services and to avoid hospital admissions. One concern is that with the suspension of routine dental care, more patients than usual could need admission for the management of acute dental infections that threaten the airway and require intensive care.

Patients with substantial swellings can progress to life-threatening emergencies, which can increase risks in the setting of reduced health-care availability. For such patients, extractions of the causative pathogenic teeth should be prioritised over restorative rescue, and input from dedicated oral surgery and oral and maxillofacial services and close follow-up should be instigated as locally appropriate. This approach has many benefits, including stewardship of antimicrobials, but is a deviation away from routine dentistry that should be thoroughly discussed with patients. Decisions on undertaking treatment should therefore be made with appropriate patient consent. Clinicians might wish to follow up patients digitally (eg, through video calls), if appropriate, to ensure patient safety, but also to minimise repeated patient contact.Testing for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in dental professionals should be undertaken with the same high priority as that of medical health-care workers in hospitals. The risk of a dental practitioner being positive for COVID-19 and potentially infecting patients attending emergency dental services should not be underestimated. Proactive and preventive measures need to be established as mainstay protocol to contain the spread of the virus.We declare no competing interests.

FULL TEXT HERE

 

Dentistry needs a safety net – support the BDA’s initiative.

The BDA continues to step up to the plate on behalf of dentists in the UK. All members will have had an email from the BDA today asking them to write to their MP regarding the fall out from the Corona Virus Pandemic.

“The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is being felt across our profession.  
Many colleagues will have their own stories, of practices struggling to stay afloat, and personal hardship. 
We are speaking up for dentists directly with ministers and officials. You can play your part by sharing that story with your MP and asking them to take action on your behalf. 
We’ve pre-populated a letter for you that will be sent directly to the MP in your postal code. All you have to do is add in your personal circumstance at the top. 

Our immediate priority is quite rightly on supporting the healthcare effort where we can. But we also need our services to still be there for patients in future. 
1 in 5 practices say they will struggle to keep their heads above water this month. And the vast majority of self-employed colleagues will get nothing from the Chancellor’s deal.
We need to see a safety net in place for every practice, and every practitioner.
We’ve been speaking out to government and the press. And your voice can help make a difference.”

Write to your MP HERE

 

The Monday Morning Quote #601

“If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are gone,

either write things worth reading or do things worth writing.”

Benjamin Franklin

 

The Monday Morning Quote #600

“The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

Hans Hoffman

The Importance of Humility

The Importance of Humility

“Too many orthodontists are hypercritical of one another. This behavior is likely attributed to our academic success in dental school, the browbeating method of morning case-reviews in residency, and the competition over patients in private practice. When I graduated from residency, I believed that I was better trained than the other orthodontists in my community. I judged others with a harsher eye than I judged myself.

I now have a more realistic view of myself and I reflect more and project less. If a transferring patient comes to my office, I continue their treatment at no expense to the family in order to support the previous orthodontist. I have no time for criticism of others, as I have so much myself that needs to improve.”

Taken from Kevin O’Brien’s blog the words are those of his guest Neal Kravitz. Full article HERE

 

The Monday Morning Quote #599

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest form of appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”

John F. Kennedy

Allyson Pollock – We need hands-on public health expertise.

Allyson Pollock can be relied upon to speak truth to power, but should they have listened?

The government has released its scientific evidence, which sheds light on the fiasco and the catastrophe that is unfolding economically, socially, and health wise. It also highlights the lack of public health input and the decimation of the speciality and expertise in communicable disease control prior to and after the Health & Social Care Act 2012. There appears to be no public health evidence from experienced physicians in communicable disease control and their teams.

Full Post HERE

The Monday Morning Quote #598

“Ignorance breeds confidence more often knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.”

Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man

 

 

I got it from Agnes…strangely topical.

The Monday Morning Quote #597

“We are where we are.

It matters not how we got here.

What matters is; what happens next.”

Anon