Owensboro dental offices are cautiously opening back up for regular visits under new COVID-19 safety guidelines.
Non-urgent and non-emergent dental care are included in Phase I of the “Healthy at Work” initiative for restarting Kentucky’s economy, as announced late last week by Gov. Andy Beshear and Steven Stack, commissioner for the Department for Public Health.
Kentucky’s licensed dental professionals were permitted to provide these services beginning Monday as long as they followed the new guidelines. Several Owensboro dentists said they’re excited to be able to get back to work like anybody else, but they’re taking it cautiously.
“We’re taking it slow,” said Terry Ward, of Ward Family Dentistry. “We’re trying to make sure we have everything in place and (follow) our protocols. We’re not seeing as many patients for sure as what we were seeing before COVID-19.”
Ward and other dental offices are using their parking lots as a waiting area. Under the guidelines from the Kentucky Board of Dentistry, patients will wait in their cars to be called to the treatment area rather than sit in the waiting room.
Only a parent or guardian of children or special needs adults are allowed to accompany patients into the office. Dental offices will screen for COVID-19 symptoms when the appointment is made as well as upon entry to the building.
Another guideline is having appropriate PPE in the dental facility for staff.
Ward’s staff has been taking patients’ temperature and having them use hand sanitizer. Ward said his office has been using face shields and wearing N-95 and KN95 masks, which they never used before — and they are much more difficult to breathe through.
“It’ something different that we’re going to have to get used to maybe short term. Maybe this might be the new norm for a long while, I don’t know,” Ward said.
Dentist offices have been allowed to accept urgent or emergency patients during COVID-19 because officials didn’t want people showing up the hospitals.
“We were taking precautions then,” Ward said. “We have kind of been developing a plan as we went along but were not allowing anyone into the waiting room.”
Justin Wedding, with Durall Wedding Orthodontics, said orthodontists were probably hit harder than dentists in terms of visits because urgency isn’t very high when it comes to straightening teeth. However, Wedding said he has been able to see some patients through teledentistry.
There is a portal online where his patients who use Invisalign can upload pictures of their teeth. Wedding can evaluate and then do a virtual check-up with them and mail the supplies they need to continue straightening their teeth.
“It’s something that we learned a lot about and we were forced into using at this time, but it’s also something that we feel like has actually benefited our patients during this slow reopening,” Wedding said.
He said this will help keep foot traffic low at his office, and it may open a new avenue for people who are busy to use in the future.
“(We’re) getting back into it which is exciting,” Wedding said. “We’re doing some limited scheduling so that we can practice on all the new infection control protocols and make sure that we got it down. It’s busy in a different way.”
Each practice may work toward a phased, gradual reopening of services that works best for them. Dental offices will be sanitized and disinfected in an enhanced manner, including disinfecting surfaces in treatment areas between each patient and at the end of the business day.
—–
Click here for all of our coronavirus coverage.
The Owensboro Health coronavirus hotline is available 24/7 by calling 877-888-6647. Call the hotline before seeking in-person care. More information from OH can be found here.
For the latest information and data on COVID-19 in Kentucky visit kycovid19.ky.gov or dial the Kentucky state hotline at 800-722-5725.
For the latest health guidelines and resources from the CDC, visit their website here.
