Visiting A Dentist Amidst Pandemic

Dental hygiene is a significant part of health, especially when we are living under pandemic. Since COVID majorly spreads through mouth and nose, it’s important to be careful with the dental regime. Our expert, Dr. Rishikesh Gollapudi suggests measures to take care of while visiting a dentist.

Dental care is an important part of our health and particularly when we are living under a global pandemic of the novel coronavirus. Since we all know that COVID-19 can spread through the mouth as well apart from nose and eyes. Therefore, it becomes very important to take care of your dental regime. Dr. Rishikesh Gollapudi, B.D.S, Sai Leela Dental Clinic, Hyderabad says that a little extra care is required in such a situation, especially when you have a dentist’s appointment. He suggests the following measures if you need to visit a dentist:

1. Call the doctor and take a prior appointment, to avoid crowding the clinic.
2. Maintain proper social distance in the clinic if other patients are there.
3. Opt for a telephonic-consultation first, so as to avoid clinical visits.
4. Don’t visit any other place if you are going to a dentist. Directly go to the clinic from your home in fresh clothes.
5. Don’t forget to wear a mask
6. Before sitting on the dental chair, keep all your valuables aside or leave them outside the room.
7. A mouthwash will be provided, so that in case a person is suffering from coronavirus or any other, the virus load reduces.
8. Ensure that disposable instruments are used by the dentist.
9. You may request your dentist to send any kind of dental reports through digital means instead of going to the clinic and getting a hard copy.
10. Follow your medications properly as prescribed by your dentist.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) also suggests some measures for both patients and the dentists:

For Patients

• Minimize or eliminate wearing a wrist watch, hand and body Jewellery and carrying of additional accessories bags, etc.
• Use your own washrooms at home to avoid the need of using toilets at the dental facility.
• Have the body temperature checked and use a sanitizer on the entrance.
• Maintain social distance.

For Dentists (general measures)

• Ensure proper disinfection of your clinic from time to time.
• Encourage cashless transactions
• Distant the waiting chairs, preferably a meter apart.
• Maintain air circulation with natural air through a frequent opening of windows and using an independent exhaust blower to extract the room air into the atmosphere.
• A bin with a lid should be available for patients to discard used paper tissues.
• Dedicated area for activities like changing clothes for staff workers or for carrying out sterilization process, etc.
• Replace cloth towels with disposable paper towels in washrooms, etc.

Therefore, proper safety is maintained by the doctors as well for treating their patients. But people should understand that although our country is gradually unlocking and the activities are getting back to normal, staying at home is still a better option unless there is an emergency situation. The MoHFW also recommends to first prefer a tele-consultation or tele-screening unless the situation has to be treated immediately by visiting a clinic. “Your safety is in your hands”, therefore, step out only if necessary!