Dental Clinic: The New Normal

Jul 7
18:55

2021

Nancy Whitman

Nancy Whitman

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The covid-19 pandemic has continued to change every facet of human existence, from social interaction, culture, transportation, business transaction, and health. Looking at the world around you, all you will see is the changes in the way things are carried out.

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The covid-19 pandemic has continued to change every facet of human existence,Dental Clinic: The New Normal Articles from social interaction, culture, transportation, business transaction, and health. Looking at the world around you, all you will see is the changes in the way things are carried out.

This piece highlights the new normal in human activities today, especially as it affects dental practices across the world.

The Pre Covid-19 system

Professionals working in the medical line are referred to as frontline workers. By nature of their job and their services, they have always been a prime target for infectious diseases anytime they are at their duty post. The only difference is that the exposure rate to contagious illness has heightened in recent times due to the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic. 

Before this period, doctor-patient interaction is mainly conducted physically. Recently, however, all that seems to be changing, considering how the covid-19 virus has continued to mutate itself by taking different variants and strains, as is the case of South Africa and the United Kingdom. All this, among many factors, has contributed to health authorities taking drastic measures that will reduce frontline workers such as Dentists from being exposed to the various.

What is the new normal in the dental world?

 

  • Telemedicine

 

Telemedicine is not strange to the medical profession, only that a lot of people are just getting to understand the procedure. 

Self-medication is the process of ignoring medical procedures, and telemedicine is quite the opposite. Telemedicine follows all medical guidelines because every bit of information you get is coming from a professional dentist. The difference is that the patient and the doctor are not seeing each other physically.

  • Human Restriction at the hospital

The hospital now has Restriction for people who come for treatment as visiting by appointment seems to be the norm across different hospitals and health facilities. Those whose health issues cannot be solved using the telemedicine approach or those whose health condition is critical and needing immediate medical attention are usually the set that gets an appointment to come down to the hospital for treatment. 

 

The primary purpose of this new system is to ensure that a limited number of people are on the ground at the hospital. Based on various medical research, it has been discovered covid-19 virus spread faster in the populated environment. It has been responsible for introducing social distancing, nose masks, and frequent washing of hands with hand sanitizers for protection and prevention. 

 

 

  • Introduction of electronic form

 

Dental clinics have adopted electronic forms such as google form to collect patient information before showing up at the clinic. The form has a provision for name and other essential information that the dental clinic can rely on to tracing.

  • Provision of health protection equipment

The dental clinics now provide health-protective gears such as PPE, medical-grade sheets, alcohol and handwashing sanitizers, and installation of air purifiers.

Conclusion

The new medical process may be taking its toll on some set of people negatively, especially those in rural communities. However, in the face of a life-threatening virus like covid-19, the best practice that can increase confidentiality between Dentists and patients is to enhance clinical facilities with protective and safe policies that can help both parties be safe and not exposed to the virus.

 

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