Business as usual? Not quite…

22-08-2020

Welcome back to the new normal.

So, we’ve been back open for a few weeks now. It’s been a learning curve for everyone. We’ve been given all these new rules and regulations to follow, protocols have been changed, and we still have to try and social distance.

Although we are back open, it’s nowhere near business as usual. We’ve had to slow right down, and therefore can’t see as many patients as we would like to.

Why so limited?

Basically, we can only run one surgery at a time. Every time we use the fast handpiece (I don’t like to use this term, but… The drill!), it creates an aerosol. This is our biggest issue. We can sterilise everything else to the ends of the earth, but we can’t stop or control aerosols in the air.

What is an aerosol and why does it cause so many problems?

An aerosol is created when the water from the handpiece, that is used to keep it cool and safe to use, mixes with the pressurised air that is needed to make the bur (what is attached to the handpiece to cut through tooth) spin. It’s sort of like spraying a can of hairspray, or spray paint, but the mist that comes out of our drill and your mouth is full of bacteria, bits of saliva, tooth, and germs! Including covid, if the patient happens to have it. We are screening everyone who comes into the practice, but as we all know, Covid can display no symptoms, which is why we now have to allow for ‘fallow time’ after each appointment.

What is fallow time?

It takes around 60 minutes for the air in any given room to refresh, with windows and doors open. So, if we’ve sprayed an aerosol into the room, we have to wait for it to either leave through a window or door, or settle on a surface so we can clean it. Which also means, we can’t use the surgery for 60 minutes. And then we have to thoroughly clean every single surface to make sure any germs that may be lurking, have gone.

So although we are open, and we will try and get you seen as soon as we can, I hope this helps explain why we are running at a limited capacity at the moment.

As ever, any questions, please get in touch.

www.halesowendental.co.uk
info@halesowendental.co.uk
0121 550 6958
0737 550 6958

A special thank you!

As ever, we thank each and every one of our patients for their patience and understanding at this time. We are trying to get to everyone who had missed and cancelled appointments due to the outbreak, as quickly as possible.