In the space of ten days the world has completely changed.
Along with most of the York Place Dental team, I'm now home based and trying not to annoy my family too much whilst we all enjoy all this extra time together.
You'll probably know that dental practices have ceased all active treatment because of the significant risk of Covid19 being transmitted by the close contact that is required to carry out these treatments and through the use of dental drills and other tools that create a lot of 'spray'.
We are expecting to be told that there will be suitably equipped Urgent Treatment Centres for people with dental problems very soon, where scarce resources can be pooled and patients in pain made comfortable again.
So far I have found and diagnosed an abscess for a 4 year old lad in his auntie's kitchen, and then located a hole in a tooth for a patient in his tractor - all with the use of the camera on an Iphone.
Antibiotics have been arranged by contactless handover, and patients directed to emergency dental filling kits on amazon or the chemist.
It's not ideal, but it's the best that can be done. The patients that I have spoken to have been incredibly grateful, and I've enjoyed having the luxury of time to get to know them that much better.
When all of this is over and we return to normality, I am sure that these little lessons will help us to provide a better, more flexible service and the world will be just a little bit better for it.
If you do have a dental emergency or require advice, call us at the practice as usual and we'll do what we can to help.
We look forward to seeing you soon.
Richard
Richard Hellen BDS