Over the past few days, we have seen many jokes going around on the internet with memes showing how dentists are relaxing on their couches and also implying that they are not doing their part during this time of crisis with COVID-19. I understand and agree that living in these uncertain times of global crisis and stress, it is good to share some jokes to lighten up the mood and not be constantly worried about the virus. At the same time with this informational article, I wish to clarify the misperception that some people may have regarding the role of dental health professionals and the part they are playing during this pandemic.
A Bostonian friend of mine called me today and during our conversation, he stated, "I need to get my dental work done and wanted to go to my dentist. When I reached out to them, the front desk mentioned that the office is closed until further notice and most probably it would be another month until they are open to see patients." He continued, "I checked to see if there are other dentists in the area who would be open to seeing me. Some of them mentioned that they are only seeing emergency patients and not performing any elective procedures." After which he curiously asked me "Why is it that other healthcare offices are open and not many dentists?" To better explain the reasoning behind this, I shared the following information with him.
As we all know that this novel virus spreads through the air (aerosol or droplets) or touching inanimate objects with the virus on it, which makes it a highly contagious. Even though people are most contagious when they are sick with this virus, there are many more who present mild to no symptoms who easily fly under the radar and end up spreading it to other people unknowingly. Further, we need to understand that there are different risk categories that health care professions fall into when it comes to such a deadly virus such as COVID-19. Keeping that in mind, let me explain why state governments across the United States and various countries across the globe are strongly recommending the dental offices not to perform any elective dental procedures and the advantage of following these recommendations is two-fold.
Firstly, dental professionals in private dental offices or in a hospital-setting regularly use dental hand-pieces which produces aerosols, small particulates, and droplets which makes it easy for the virus to be inhaled, making it highly contagious and dangerous for the patient and dental health professionals (dentist, hygienist and the dental assistant). In mid-March, Business Insider released an article about the vulnerability of workers to Coronavirus and 47 jobs that put overall health at risk. Top 5 jobs at most risk included four from the dental profession such as dental hygienists, dentists, dental assistants, and dental technicians. Please click here to read the article.
Second, we see that one of the biggest struggles that our courageous doctors on the frontlines have right now is acquiring personal protective equipment (PPE) to provide care for sick patients at thousands of hospitals across the nation, this makes it highly difficult to keep themselves protected and provide optimum care. So the fewer dental procedures done, the more PPE is available for use by the healthcare professionals at hospitals, which is THE need of the hour.
So is there any dental care provided at all? Yes, dentists are providing care to patients with emergent or certain urgent needs. For more information about the breakdown of emergent and urgent dental care needs, please follow the link from the American Dental Association.
In such a scenario, why are dentists even providing emergent dental care? Well, let me explain the cyclic process and the burden it can cause the hospital systems across the nation if dentists stop to provide care altogether. When patients with emergency dental needs such as severe dental pain or swelling see that there are no dentists available to provide care. They end up going to the emergency department (ED), which diverts time, effort and resources of the hospital. Furthermore, when a patient ends up with a dental-related ED visit, their underlying cause is not addressed appropriately. When the week-long prescribed medication course is completed, the pain and swelling might return back and the patient would end up in the ER again. All of which could have been ably taken care of, by a dentist. This has been happening in the United States for many years and needs to be addressed but I will leave that for a future article and discussion.
In efforts to reduce the burden on hospitals, dentists are still out there caring for the patients and providing care. A recent survey from the ADA Health Policy Insititute shows that almost 76% of dentists who took part in the survey are providing emergent dental care to patients during the Coronavirus crisis. Additionally, many dental schools across the country are providing emergent dental care services to their patients, one of such schools is the University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco, California.
Dentists across the globe are trying to prevent the spread through primary prevention. At the same time, putting their lives at risk to maintain a balance, provide care and save resources for the healthcare systems. Dental professionals are already joining the expanded workforce in states such as California and many more to combat the virus. Some great dental professionals are already working in the frontlines administering COVID -19 tests to potentially infected people in testing tents. Stories like these keep us inspired.
We all are in it together and I believe that each one of us is contributing in our own way to save lives and I thank each and every one of you, especially the medical professionals at the forefront of this fight against the virus, who are caring for others before caring for themselves.
Wherever in the world, you are right now. Please stay positive. We will get through this together. Remember to follow the recommendations by the CDC, such as washing your hands frequently, practice safe physical distancing, and staying home. Thanks for reading this article.
Image credit: Toothbrush Vectors by Vecteezy