Everything, dental care included, seems to have been changed in these strange times. As the coronavirus pandemic shut down dental practices across the U.S., the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Dental Association (ADA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration kicked it into high gear to find solutions for dentists so they could safely resume caring for their patients when it was OK to do so.
In this post, we wanted to share some of the important ways we’re working to provide excellent care while keeping patients safe at our Turlock, CA dental practice, and we wanted to provide a short list of symptoms that should compel a call to your dentist if you experience them.
Four Ways We’re Keeping Our Patients Safe
Some of the simpler changes we’ve made to reduce patient risk for contracting COVID-19 include:
- We use a questionnaire over the phone before appointments to screen patients for symptoms of the coronavirus. We also use a simple, quick screening process on the day of appointments.
- We require masks to be worn inside our office for the safety of all patients and our staff. We will provide masks and hand sanitizer to patients if needed.
- We always work to stagger appointments to reduce the number of people in our office throughout the day.
- We sanitize our office surfaces throughout the day, and we’ve removed magazines and pillows to reduce surface contact risks for patients.
We continue to monitor the latest guidance from experts and make changes to our patient safety practices, equipment, administrative functions, and office infrastructure.
Don’t Delay a Call to Your Dentist if You Experience These Symptoms
Visiting the dentist can seem scary for a number of reasons right now, especially if you’re in a high-risk category for the coronavirus. There are some symptoms, however, that are signals from your body telling you to get in touch with your dentist right away. This is not a complete list, but make sure you schedule emergency dental care if you experience:
- A major chip in your tooth
- A complete loss of an adult tooth
- Heavy and persistent bleeding of the gums or in other areas in your mouth
- Signs of an infection such as an abscess, swelling, or intense pain
- Anything abnormal about recent dental work you’ve had done
- Trauma to the jaw or teeth
- Numbness of an area in or around your mouth
- Patches of sores or noticeable discoloration in your mouth
Delaying dental care for any of these issues could lead to severe oral health consequences down the road.
Thanks for Reading! Stay Safe!
As long as you’re in relatively good shape, brushing twice and flossing at least once a day will keep most oral health issues at bay while we all get back into some sort of normal groove.
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