I have linked below the ADA’s response to the WHO’s recommendation regarding postponing dental treatment.
I would like to add a personal statement. I am frustrated by the recommendation for a number of reasons. The WHO has completely ignored that simply because dental visits are part of your routine, they are not elective. We treat disease. Periodontal disease has been linked to cardiovascular disease and diabetes, both comorbidities associated with poor results after COVID exposure. Most of the dental disease that we treat is painless and invisible to you, a dental professional needs to look and examine you in order to diagnose these issues. Waiting until something hurts frequently leads to more extensive treatments, we are here to prevent that. Periodontal disease and dental caries are bacterial infections. Dental professionals have been dismissed by the WHO and not given credit for being an essential part of your healthcare. Further, no outbreaks have been linked to dental offices. If this were truly an unsafe environment outbreaks would be rampant.
So, what are we doing to keep ourselves and you safe? We are following all the recommendations given to us by the CDC and the ADA, including asking screening questions, taking patient temperatures, reducing time spent in the reception area, increasing our PPE, and reducing aerosols as much as possible. Additionally, we are asking all patients to do a pre-procedural iodine rinse to reduce oral viral load. A recent UCONN study supports this and has been posted on this page previously. We have hospital grade air purifiers in every operatory, which filter all the air in the operatory every 12 minutes and have UV filters to kill live particles. We fog the office regularly with an HCL fogger.
It is of highest importance to me that my staff and my patients are safe. If you have any questions regarding our protocols or have concerns about you safety, please don’t hesitate to call. We appreciate all our patients’ efforts to keep themselves and our community safe and we are here to help.
Regards,
Mildred L Goebel DMD
https://www.ada.org/en/press-room/news-releases/2020-archives/august/american-dental-association-dentistry-is-essential-health-care
ADA.ORG
American Dental Association: Dentistry is Essential Health Care
We have been using this rinse since we opened our doors on May 26. Just one of the many protocols we have instituted to keep our staff and our patients safe.
TODAY.UCONN.EDU
UConn Health Researchers Find a Simple Oral Rinse Can Inactivate the COVID-19 Virus - UConn Today
We are back!! You can’t see it, but we are smiling under all this gear. It has been so nice to come back into the office and see our patients once again. Please bear with us as we try to get all of those whose appointments were cancelled back into the schedule. See you soon!
We are ready to open on Tuesday!! Here’s a sneak peek of our fabulous hygienist Jill, modeling the latest in PPE fashion! See you all soon!
COVID-19 update.
We are happy to announce our planned reopening on May 26. We will continue the protocols we have always implemented, and with the guidance of the ADA, OSHA, and the CDC we will be implementing some new protocols to ensure the continued safety of our staff and patients. We will be reaching out to all patients before appointments for a pre appointment screening.
Additionally, we will reach out to everyone who has had a cancelled appointment, but please keep in mind that we were closed for two months and it will take some time to fit everyone in again. If you have any immediate concerns, please let us know.
See you all soon,
The Goebel Family Dentistry Team
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
We are closed for the remainder of today due to a power outage. Be safe everyone.
We will be closed today due to the snow storm.