What You Must Know about Dental Care During Covid-19
Have you booked your next dental appointment? Are you wondering what the “new normal” looks like for dental offices? Seeing the dentist during Covid-19 presents many questions for patients. From preparing for your appointment to essential dental tips for all, Dr. Sangita Murali shares her insights in this powerful and informative podcast.
As many of you are aware of on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization announced the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 is a new virus with no vaccine or treatment and what we’ve learned is that the virus is primarily transmitted by direct or indirect contact through airborne respiratory droplets from an infected person who may or may not have symptoms. In the dental office, the care we provide often includes aerosol-generating procedures so as a result, some of the procedures we do in dentistry can increase viral transmission therefore although our PPE guidelines have always been amongst the highest in the dental setting, they are moreso now than ever.
Of late, I’ve received lots of questions from friends and patients around the topics of “should I only go to my dentist if it’s an emergency” and “is it the right time to do my regular check-up?” While it may feel appealing to put off your routine checkup until things feel more “normal and comfortable” again, these appointments give us a chance to check for a number of potential health issues and catch them early. Some issues such as dental caries aka tooth decay, can start off really very small and manageable and if left undetected or untreated can become more difficult and even painful and expensive to treat later on.
And so whether you’ve re-scheduled your dental appointments or are on the fence, I want to provide you with some information in congruence with our professional organizations like the American Dental Association and American Association of Orthodontics on what to expect at your next visit:
Per the ADA’s guidance,
Before your appointment, your dental team may call you to ask you some health-related questions before your scheduled appointment to make sure patients are healthy before they come in. Like the office staff at your doctors appointments, dental office staff may ask you to wait outside the office or in your car until your oral health team is ready for you. Additionally, you may be asked to limit the number of people coming to the visit. And older children may be requested to go into the office without a parent. From my experiences, these precautionary systems are working really well and they give the staff time to perform additional sanitation measures to prepare the rooms for you.
At your appointment, you’ll be asked to wear your mask as many cities and states are advising or requiring people to wear face masks in public. When you arrive, your dental team will take your temperature and may repeat the health-related questions asked before your appointment. When you come in, you’ll often notice that high-touch surface or items like toys or magazines may be removed from the waiting room. Moreover, you’ll observe your dental team wearing additional protective equipment, which may often includes face masks, plastic face shields, eye protection and surgical gowns.
After your appointment, schedule your next visit since your oral health is so connected to your overall health and keeping up with your regular dental care is one of the many ways to stay healthy during these times in addition to washing your hands, maintaining six feet of physical distance whenever possible, avoiding large gatherings and so on. Additionally, if you start to experience symptoms of COVID-19 within two days of your appointment, alert your dental office right away so that those who came into contact with you at your visit may be tested for the virus.
BIO: Dr. Sangita Murali was born in small-town Ohio and grew up south of Boston in Dartmouth, MA. She graduated from Bates College with a B.S. in Neuroscience and general education concentrations in Applied Mathematics and Public Health. At Bates, Sangita was Co-President of her Class, and earlier in 2020, she was chosen as a recipient of the Distinguished Young Alumni Award by the Bates College Alumni Council. After undergrad, Sangita received her M.S. in Biomedical Sciences from Tufts University School of Medicine and then attended Tufts University School of Dental Medicine for dental school where she earned her D.M.D. Currently, Sangita lives in Atlanta and is in her final year of residency in pursuit of a graduate certificate in orthodontics.
Sangita loves working with people of all ages, especially those with dental phobias and anxieties. She attributes her empathetic patient care approach to her parents who serve as role models for compassion and humanity. Sangita is passionate about creating supportive environments to empower diverse backgrounds including the South Asian, geriatric and homeless women’s communities.
In her free time, Sangita loves spending time outdoors playing golf and tennis, cooking, and traveling. Like her father, she loves materials science and development research to make better products and one of her favorite memories is traveling to Munich, Germany to complete a research project with 3M Oral Care as a dental student!
We hope you feel comfortable and prepared for your next dental appointment. Thank you for tuning in, and thank you Sangita for educating our empowered women’s network on this important topic.
All this information and more can be found on one of my favorite dental health resources www.mouthhealthy.org! And you can also reach out to Sangita directly through our group and she would love to help field any additional questions you may have!