Remote dental access for patients, phone and video: Covid-19 update

A week has now passed since the government introduced strict social distancing rules in the fight against Covid-19. Every dental practice in the UK has been asked to effectively close their doors and manage patients remotely where possible. This means that, with the exception of a critical emergency, we are managing all of our patients without any physical interaction.

The work that the NHS professionals are doing is unbelievable. Many of our patients also work for the NHS and we would like to thank you for your continued efforts in our nations response. Our team are on a shortlist of professionals who will be asked to help with the Covid-19 crisis if we are required to provide additional support. We will be honoured to help in any way possible.

Our team have set up remote access stations in their home offices to ensure that all of our staff are isolated from each other. We are also providing phone consultations for all patients with one of our dentists on a daily basis. Online video consultations are also being provided which enables us to provide a ‘face-to-face’ apointment for all of our patients. We are making every effort to provide our patients with access to our team of dentists during this difficult time. In almost all cases, we are able to assist our patients remotely and we can provide analgeasics, antibiotics and more specific dental advice to help our patients overcome their dental problems until we are able to see them again at the clinic. Our previous blog was on the topic of managing toothache when self isolating and you may find this useful. Once our clinic is back to normal, we will be working hard to resume the high quality of care that many of our patients have had to delay. We will be in touch as soon as we are able to see you all again at the clinic.

It is important to try and continue with a normal work routine during these difficult times of isolation. I am going for a run everyday to keep fit and healthy and I am continuing to work during normal working hours albeit, in a diferent way. We have already provided many patients with remote dental care and I am proud of how effectively we have been able to help our patients using this approach.

It may be a few more weeks before we can resume ‘normal’ dental care however, in the meantime our team will do everything possible to continue to provide a dental care service to all patients. For those of you who are familiar with my blogs, you will know that I write about dental topics every week however, the last few blogs have been about Covid-19. I will be resuming my blog writing on dental topics and remember to sign up to our dental health information (tab at bottom of page) if you would like to receive my blogs.

We will keep you all updated on Covid-19 and any further changes on our dental care service. I wish you and your families all the best during this period!

Thank you for reading,

Mohsin Patel BDS MJDF RCS (Eng)