Observations from my first week back ?


Although next week is our first official week back, last week we scheduled some patients on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Monday was spent training and rearranging the office. We familiarized ourselves with a bunch of PPE obtained over the break for various sources and figured out what we would use in different situations. We received two hundred Chinese disposable face shields, some Valuemax disposable coats, various types of level three surgical masks and three boxes of N95 masks.

I had purchased a bag full of paper sandwich bags that I plan to store N 95 masks after being used for one day. The bags will be labelled with the name of the user and the day that it was used. After a week of rest, it will be deemed safe to reuse if needed ( If no additional n-95's are available).

We positioned various air purifiers around the office, got most of the supplies that my assistant and hygienist store on the counters in their operatories and placed them on mobile cabinets immediately outside their treatment rooms. and we were more or less ready to go. 

We saw one patient on Tuesday, four on Wednesday and another two on Thursday. My hygienist and I cleaned teeth, took radiographs and did examinations.  I also did a filling, inserted two permanent crowns and started an emergency root canal. At first it was pretty strange . I work with loupes and a light that sometimes needs adjusting during a procedure, in order to aim the light better. This isn't that feasible if its crammed inside a face shield. Some face shields allow mounting the light on the outside of the headband, but those haven't shipped to my office yet ( they seem to be on a very "slow boat" from California. 

Things got easier as the week went along and by Thursday I was more or less used to my new "normal". During this "shakedown cruise" we adjusted our prescreening and greeting protocols with our patients. Towards the end of the week we had instituted some protocols that worked reasonably well. At first I asked my front desk person to call the patients and interview with a prescreening health questionnaire. Many dentists are using online forms to accomplish this, but we are using G6 Dentrix which doesn't easily accommodate these, so we did verbal interviews and directed them to a letter I posted on my website that went over how we were restarting our practice. This letter covered what would happen when they arrived and was intended explain what would happen when they arrived a the office. We also taped a Welcome back letter on the outside of our front door.

It turned out that our patients weren't really reading the letter and were entering the office and taking off their masks ( a big no-no) and this was stressing me out, since I or a staff member had to coerce them to put their masks back on until they were seated in the operatory. 

By Thursday I came up with a better solution. I had my front desk administer call each patient up before their appointment and detail what would happen when they came into the office. I also locked the front door and changed the note that was tapped outside. Now it instructed the patients that they should keep their mask on and ring the front bell. A staff member would take their temperature and escort them to the treatment room . This worked much better, since this afforded us better control of where the patients went and who they talked to.

I did notice a positive development of our three month shut down. Patients were more pro active about requesting treatment. If they came in for a filling they asked if they could also have a cleaning as well. Given the uncertainty of our times they saw no need for extra visits and often commented that who knew when they would be able to get back for additional treatment. It was sort of like going to the supermarket and buying all the toilet paper or meat that you could find...just in case. 

We were usually able to accommodate their requests since we scheduled an hour gap time between appointments and multiple procedures were easily accomplished. If this attitude persists it will be a positive developments for most dentists, since prior to March 2020 many were not in a hurry to do additional treatments after they finished a procedure. They would frequently comment" That's OK Doc, I'll make an appointment for that later, after I can check my schedule".






from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2020/06/observations-from-my-first-week-back.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an...
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of ...
Read more

Tongue Ties: What Parents Need to Know

Image
For a long time, people just didn’t seem to know much about tongue ties. In the early years of my practice, few of my patients had ever heard of a tongue tie. When I pointed out that they or their children might be tongue tied, I was often the very first practitioner who’d mentioned it to them. When I told them that a tongue tie might actually be the root cause of their oral myofunctional issues, or even their sleep apnea , I’m sure that some of them thought I was crazy. But in the last few years, things have changed so much! Initially, there was a small increase in the number of patients who were contacting me specifically about tongue ties. Dentists and orthodontists also began reaching out more frequently to discuss the application of myofunctional therapy exercises to tongue tie treatment. But in the last year or so, that little bit of interest has become a surge of awareness. Tongue ties and their effects on health and craniofacial development are finally becoming mainstream....
Read more