Yesterday the Chief Dental Officer released new guidelines on how dental practiced should operate in the next few months into early 2022 with respect to COVID-19 protocols.
CDO (England) Standard operating procedures 25th November 2021
In this constantly moving situation & with greater knowledge it has been advised that some aspects of visiting the dental practice can return to ‘more normal’, but only if patients are screened for ANY respiratory symptoms before entering the practice.
This still means we must speak to you on the phone either the day before, or on the day before your appointment to do this screening.
Please remember that having had your COVID-19 vaccinations (& in some cases your booster) has no relevance to this at all, it’s whether you have any symptoms of a cough/cold/runny nose/sneezing/high temperature, & whether anyone in your household has/had COVID within 10 days or has been advised to isolate.
The regulations continue to require masks/face coverings inside the building when not receiving treatment in the chair. You will be asked to wear one in all other areas of the building.
The one big step forward in the new regulations is that we do not need to have ‘fallow time’ between appointments with the extractor fans on. The extraction will still need to be used when using any aerosol from a drill etc but not for a fixed additional length of time after. This means that usual cross-infection prevention cleaning etc can start straight away.
This is a huge time-saver & will allow the practice to add more appointments into the book every day, which in turn means we can see more patients for treatment. This also means we may be able to bring some treatment appointments forward.
Finally, social distancing is still recommended in all areas, so we still have to limit the number of people in the waiting room at any given time, so may ask you to wait outside still. Also the screen on reception is still advised so will be retained.
All these measures are advised for your safety & ours. We ask that you continue to comply with these regulations which specifically apply in dental healthcare regardless of what is happening in other areas of business & retail.
Best wishes
All at EADP