Clearly, our entire lives have been turned upside down as a result of the Coronavirus/COVID-19.

Very little aspect of anyone’s lives has been unaffected by this but the majority of us want to get back to normality as soon as possible, access to service and opportunities we had in the past.

Sadly, dentistry was badly affected by Coronavirus and Dental Practices across the UK were forced to close, affecting people’s dental health in a negative fashion and leading to greater tooth loss than was otherwise anticipated.

Also, there are people who were keen to explore the options of dental implants for their own health and well-being prior to the virus and who still wish to do so.

So, questions on people’s lips about accessing healthcare and other aspects of society are not unreasonable and it’s important to put patients' minds at rest.

Dentistry has always been an extremely safe place to receive healthcare due to our skill at providing very efficient cross-infection control for many years.

Much of Dentistry’s cross-infection control is better than many other areas of healthcare and this is the case following the introduction of new measures to combat the Coronavirus risk.

As you choose to proceed with your dental care and your complex dental care, such as dental implants, it’s important to assess the environment you're going to and to ask the right questions to ensure that you’re safe.

You can ask your provider what measures they have put in place, not only for your own safety but for the safety of the team and staff.

Some precautions may be:

• Larger spacing in waiting rooms to allow for social distancing or even to ask patients to wait in their car in designated car parks prior to their appointment time where they will be called.
• Surfaces will be cleaned extensively, and some Practices offer air-recycling systems in surgery to ensure that the aerosol and droplets spread from dentistry do not pass to staff or patients.
• Practices will be able to reschedule patients to ensure there are a minimum number of patients in waiting rooms for the size of the practice available.

Depending on the amount of surgery space available in Dental Practices will determine how many patients can attend at one time and all of these precautions will allow Dentistry to continue in a relatively normal fashion, all be it with fewer patients being seen in surgery for some period of time.

All Practices have to adhere to strict guidelines related to seeing patients in the post Coronavirus environment, but some Practices will be better equipped than others to be able to provide treatment in a suitable environment.

If you have any concerns or would like to have the answers to any questions regarding your treatment then all Practices will are well set up to be able to provide you with the answers to your questions and if you are concerned, before attending the dentist consider asking:

• What measures have you taken to alter the Practice and the environment following the Coronavirus pandemic?
• How are you looking after the team in these circumstances?
• What specific measures have you taken to look after patients?

I hope this article is helpful, if you require any further information do not hesitate to contact the Practice here.