Resume Dental Treatment
Re-deploy NHS volunteers currently not needed at hospitals to assist with dental practice health & safety in order for preventative and restorative treatment to recommence. Assign sufficient PPE and implement adequate infection control procedures in order fo dentists to resume safe treatment.
Why the contribution is important
Adequate dental treatment critical for overall long term health. 6 weeks of no treatment already resulting in patient pain, discomfort, stress and lost teeth. Longer term health implications of inadequate dental care also need borne in mind.
by NickPrentice on May 05, 2020 at 01:11PM
Posted by amw May 05, 2020 at 13:18
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Posted by Garywall8787 May 05, 2020 at 13:18
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Posted by Scotland1 May 05, 2020 at 13:18
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Posted by Pat May 05, 2020 at 13:21
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Posted by Julietbravo May 05, 2020 at 13:27
GPs and hosp still have to see patients surely they can vet patients prior to appointment
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Posted by Fifewifey May 05, 2020 at 13:27
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Posted by twentyoneforever May 05, 2020 at 13:29
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Posted by Piefke May 05, 2020 at 13:31
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Posted by Julie May 05, 2020 at 13:43
While there is some very limited provision during lockdown it is not readily accessible and people prefer to see their own dentist with whom they have built up trust.
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Posted by Bill May 05, 2020 at 14:27
6 weeks waiting for this to happen and reopen. Huge pain advised to used painkillers...6 weeks with painkillers and antibiotics. How good is this for our immune system?
Dentists using PPE. As in rest of EU is allowed please let us also see dentist and visit dental practices.
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Posted by AMcD May 05, 2020 at 14:31
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Posted by Aa May 05, 2020 at 15:05
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Posted by RWilkie May 05, 2020 at 16:15
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Posted by Cokell May 06, 2020 at 09:39
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Posted by Sccw May 06, 2020 at 12:42
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Posted by AlexaJoy May 06, 2020 at 14:55
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Posted by FionaMcDonald76 May 06, 2020 at 15:07
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Posted by Sorcha2222 May 06, 2020 at 20:15
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Posted by Itsjustmehere May 06, 2020 at 20:42
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Posted by JackieScott May 06, 2020 at 23:32
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Posted by christine72 May 07, 2020 at 07:06
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Posted by nigheanmhath May 07, 2020 at 11:45
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Posted by Lbryjacq May 07, 2020 at 22:35
If using full PPE and decontaminated surgeries appropriately can we not manage the risk like a lot of other services.
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Posted by Boobills May 08, 2020 at 10:47
When can we expect to be in receipt of dental care once again?
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Posted by Yoshi May 08, 2020 at 13:01
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Posted by DaveD May 08, 2020 at 14:11
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Posted by Anonymous1 May 08, 2020 at 19:40
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Posted by WBRnotes May 08, 2020 at 20:58
Perhaps patients could be issued with cheap paper coveralls and dentists could wear proper N95 masks or similar? I'm not a specialist in this area but appreciate keeping surgeries and patients infection free would be vital.
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Posted by Heron May 09, 2020 at 14:47
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Posted by Sarah25 May 09, 2020 at 18:33
SG is setting population up for possibly more future issues. Appears that SG are solely focussed on COVID19 which FM said herself is “a relatively mild illness for vast majority” and therefore the rest of healthcare is out of window.
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Posted by Moj14 May 10, 2020 at 13:37
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Posted by Maggi May 10, 2020 at 15:12
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Posted by Ginger May 10, 2020 at 18:26
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Posted by StayAtHomeSaveLives May 11, 2020 at 05:35
Rapid assessments & approval needed for good quality dental practices which are able to demonstrate previous training & capacity to safely handle aerosol-generating procedures
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Posted by davidcoffield May 11, 2020 at 11:23
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Posted by beachhut May 11, 2020 at 15:00
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Posted by Greenside85 May 11, 2020 at 16:50
1) The increased cost of new, more rigorous PPE must be met by SG or the patient, not the individual NHS practices. There are talks of PPE for aerosol generating procedures (fillings, crown preparations, ultrasonic scalings) costing up to £40 per patient per visit. This is not sustainable for an NHS practice.
2) The potential increased ‘downtime’ between AGP patients has to be addressed. There are rumours of surgeries being out of action for 60minutes after an AGP procedure. This downtime will kill NHS practices unless we can have higher fees from SG or are allowed to charge appropriately.
Please be aware this is not a statement looking to profiteer. Our NHS income is fixed by SG on a fee per item basis, if our costs increase exponentially then we will have no option but to go private and then there is no regulating the fees and the patients lose out. There are genuine concerns that dental practices, once reopened, could go out of business leading to redundancies for staff, less income for dental labs and no patient care in remote areas with only one dentist if bills cannot be paid.
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Posted by PKWhite May 11, 2020 at 18:15
From the policy document released by the British Association of Private Dentists - As dental professionals, we have existing expertise at implementing universal precautions and a consistently high level of cross infection control. (R. Shah, 2009) and there is currently no evidence anywhere in the world of excess SARS-CoV-2 infections within dentist and dental care professional (DCP) populations. (T. Cook, 2020) (C. Heneghan, 2020) (Chustecka, 2020). Additionally, there are no reports of Super Spreader Events (SSEs) or “hotspots” for patient or dental non-clinical staff member infections with SARS-CoV-2 anywhere, worldwide. (Kay, 2020)
And-
There is no evidence of SARS-CoV-2 transmission between dental professionals and patients. The most up to date study from Wuhan (Meng at al 2020) suggest no reported deaths from the provision of dental care to COVID-19 positive patients. Studies such as those conducted by Richards (2020) highlight the role of rubber dam in prevention of micro-organism spread, and consequently need serious consideration. This has been adopted by many countries as a reason
to keep the profession providing a much-needed service. The UK has created
a situation where dental practices have closed, without any scientific evidence supporting these decisions, risking patient health in the process. The financial impact of this is beyond the scope of this article; the reality is, however, dire for many practices nationwide. Many of these practices have the required PPE in place to provide a non-AGP emergency service from tomorrow, instantly easing the workload of UDCs and reducing the need for patients to travel. The financial impacts upon practices acting as a UDC have not gone unnoticed in the national press in recent days, as well as reports of inadequate PPE provision.
It would seem standard PPE and procedures prior to the outbreak were working and so any changes to operating procedure should be evidence based and not based on a theoretical risk. Dentists and their staff should be assuming the patient is carrying something infective and used to thorough hand cleaning and cleaning of the surgery between patients. The only negative to all practices reopening and treating patients would be the pressures on already scarce PPE equipment.
It is well established that patients, generally, would prefer to have their dental treatment carried out by their normal dentist who they have developed a trust in.
Hopefully with reasonable and realistic risk assessment to protect staff and patients we can get back to something approaching normality in the dental profession. Our triaging so far has identified a growing backlog of patients with issues that will have to be addressed before routing care can be resumed.
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Posted by rptcal May 11, 2020 at 18:19
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Posted by Panjam May 11, 2020 at 20:33
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Posted by Cararoberts May 11, 2020 at 20:39
I am greatly distressed to discover the emergency hubs are providing little else but tooth extractions and that basic dental care is simply not available and that there is no timeline for services to resume. My busy 3 dentist surgery has referred nobody to the emergency hubs in 8 weeks since they don’t want unnecessary tooth extractions so have countless patients including myself having to cope with ongoing pain with no treatment options except advising us to take painkillers. Today my dentist told me on the phone it is like going back 200 years and that if he could see me he could solve the pain in 15 minutes. As it is I’m trying to juggle my key worker role and manage two small children with no support in constant pain.
I’ve never felt so let down and frankly desperate. To me this is an essential service and the current situation feels bordering on the barbaric.
Given the closures are about the risks to dentists and there is no end to this situation imminent then surely dental practices need proper PPE and whatever else they need to provide safe treatment as a matter or urgency.
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Posted by IMcK May 11, 2020 at 21:03
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Posted by Brett May 11, 2020 at 21:35
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