DAYTON, Ohio — At Dayton Dental Collaborative, operations are back open in full swing, but there are new safety measures in place. And so far, on the first day of being back open, the team is very optimistic.
- Dental Offices around the state are fully reopened after nearly two months of operating on an emergency basis
- This allows many patients to follow up with care they missed during to the pandemic
- Dayton Dental Collaborative ramped up safety measures in multiple ways to increase safety
It’s a step toward returning to normal life. These are the first patients receiving standard services at this office in Dayton since March 16. Hygienist Tabitha Whitaker is happy to be back in action.
“We’re really excited,” Whitaker said. “I think it feel really good to see the patients again. I know they really need us right now.”
To ensure patients and staff stay safe, new precautions are in place. First you’ll notice an empty waiting room. That’s because patients are outside waiting in their cars. They call the office to check in. Then, when it’s their time to be seen, they receive a phone call.
“I’m meeting them in the vestibule area, we’re getting their temperature, they’re coming straight to the back, that way there is no contact in our reception area,” Whitaker said.
Dentist Randi Butler says their strongest safeguard in place happens before patients even pull onto the parking lot — pre-screening for any COVID-19 symptoms.
“We absolutely are not seeing anybody that has had any of those concerns,” Butler said. "Our main concern is keeping everybody safe.”
A big concern in the dental community comes from the spray of saliva from patient’s mouths, better know as aerosol — which can linger in the air for hours. But with added levels of PPE, like face-shields, and dental tools like the ReLeaf suction device and Isolites, this dentistry is using everything at their disposal to stay safe.
“(Isolites) eliminates 90 percent of the aerosols in the air for our patients,” Whitaker said. “So, that’s really key that we’re doing differently in the back. Just to make sure that there’s no air, no spit, saliva in the air for patients to come into contact with.”
They’re also doing extra cleaning once a patient leaves the office.
Butler says all these preventative measures together have effectively reduced uncertainty for these dental professionals.
“We’ve always been on the cutting edge of any kind of standard precautions, or infection control,” Butler said. “So just bumping that up a level is really good. I think everyone here feels really well prepared and ready to face what we have coming to us.”
Dayton Dental Collaborative is starting out operating at about 50 percent of normal capacity, but the gap in services from mid-March till now has created a backlog of patients — which they’ll work through one patient at a time until things are fully back to normal.
“It’s been really great to be able to come back and be around my people,” Butler said. “Just starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel.”