Can anyone tell me why dentists are being so protected?

[Carrotcakeforbreakfast]

So my tooth cracked yesterday crown to root.
Called dentist and they said call back tomorrow.

Last night half of said tooth broke off but roots are still in the gum.
Im in absolute agony.
Called up and they said buy a temporary filling kit and gargle with saltwater as we are not doing any face to face.

I'm an ahp frontline too
I have to carry on

Face to face with suspected
Face to face with ventilated confirmed.

Why can't dentists do emergency only witn the ppe we are being told to wear?

On a practical note any advice on what I can do for the pain? I have clove oil and it hasn't done much

Co-codomal hasn't done anything
I'm meant to be back at work tomorrow too. They really need me but I cannot think straight for the pain.

I should add, they are not seeking to profit from this. But they’d like to have a business back afterwards.

It’s dreadful, our patients may not be dying but are left in agony. They have the perception that we are treating them badly so won’t want to come back after this. The hubs that are being set up will only being seeing the worst of emergencies not crown re cements which most patients are quite rightly distressed about. I get this pandemic is terrible but they have literally scrapped our profession, which other profession would accept these conditions? Would teachers? Would the police? Their governing bodies would be in uproar ours says don’t worry about working within your scope of practice it’s not that important any more.

Every profession is different but there's not significant teaching going on at the school I'm seeing at the moment, rather more like organised childcare.

In primary care, there's wholesale changes on the fly.

I'd trade you not working for being forced to work without adequate PPE. My first level of concern will be whether my DC keeps both or at least one parent at the end of this judging by the rates of ventilated HCPs in the UK under-60 without pre-existing medical conditions and the death rates for HCPs in China and Italy. The next level will be whether inadequate PPE leads to bringing home virus that endangers elderly relatives and the guilt from that. We're trying to work out the logistics of not going home.

We have been working with out adequate PPE up until Wednesday this week in primary care, I know that we are not classed as “true” healthcare professionals and I’ve always been ok with that I chose my profession. I didn’t chose to be in a hospital environment I have the upmost respect for those of you that do make that choice especially now. But my reality right now is that I chose to get paid and be put where I’m told or to effectively make myself unemployed and get no help. It doesn’t feel much of a choice. I wouldn’t want to trade you and I wish you all the best.

We are still working but not doing treatment we are giving advice and prescribing which feels very inadequate when you have patients crying in pain and you can’t help them. I understand that people are in much worse situations, but it goes against our whole ethos of patient care in our profession.

Dentists are hugely at risk due to the proximity they have to patients and their respiratory tracts. There should still be emergency appointments somewhere though?

Migg, it seems quite shocking now to think of how at risk dentists are from respiratory viruses and infections. Should we expect new measures to protect them after this crisis, do you think?

Pl don't misunderstand me, book buddy. I think Primary-based HCPs are doing as much as acute and I see primary based HCPs putting themselves at risk for patients too. I know primary have already had HCPs die from COVID in the UK and are working without PPE/inadequate PPE/expired PPE with a sticker over the date like acute are.

I was flippantly replying though I understand it will be heartbreaking to see your business in jeopardy/to not be treating patients in need and to be facing what appear to be illogical decisions by NHSE (much like it will be heartbreaking to have lost your job, to not be paid as a self-employed person and all the other consequences of the lockdown and of COVID).

I'm angry about PPE and have seen what looks like misinformation to me. weeks ago it was 'there is enough PPE where it is needed' when we knew we didn't have any. Then it was that 'there are large stocks of PPE in the warehouses' when we knew there wasn't because we couldn't order it or see the stocks or get deliveries when other things could be delivered. Now it's 'the army are working heroically to get the PPE out' which rings true but it just shows the misleading previous statements as they wouldn't have needed the army to be working heroically if there had been enough PPE out there when they said it was.

I'm also angry that the government had advance warning and ignored what WHO advised and what could be seen to have worked in South Korea and Singapore (testing and contact tracing) that would have meant we didn't to put HCPs lives at risk and 181 patients wouldn't have died and we wouldn't have needed the lockdown.

but you are as much a HCP in primary as anywhere else. I'd no insight into what's happening in dental so learned something from your post. It sounds like you've got hard decisions with a layer of business to consider as well as personal safety and responsibility for employees too. Good luck.

It’s to do with aerosol and small particles and that doing a job where you are poking around in someone’s mouth is really damned risky. Keeping surfaces free of infection is really difficult because of the nature of this virus.

Same reason surgeons are really worried about working too, both for themselves and their patients.

Anecdotally, I think there's at least a couple of ENT consultants requiring ventilation in England so the risks are, unsurprisingly, related to HCP professions and specialisms.

You know it’s been a long week, I’m not usually on the defence I apologise if it came across that way. After 20 years in dentistry I’m completely used to the profession being overlooked (quite rightly in some instances) this week has made me reconsider my future in this industry and I’m truly sad for all of us in healthcare that are being hung out to dry. We are all being treated pretty poorly, It’s hard for everyone right now I should feel lucky to still have a job in all honesty (maybe next week) All the luck to you and your family, stay safe.

You didn't come across as defensive though I did come across as an arse (a true reflection as I've realised I am an arse, unfortunately).

It must be heartbreaking to risk losing a business and be thinking about your profession as well. The UK needs dentists and I expect Brexit will make recruitment harder (I've not said the Brexit word for a while until I heard Gove will be leading the Brexit negotiations next week). Let's hope common sense reigns to keep dentists in business in the short term through COVID and then in the medium to long term too.

Not an arse your doing a difficult job with little resources and worrying about your family. Like I said it’s not a career I’d ever had chosen for myself, I don’t doubt how difficult it must be. I’d completely forgotten about Brexit, sliver linings and all that! It’s a whole new world to most of us right now, a few goodnights sleep and I’m sure I’ll snap out of it. I’m secretly thinking of going out with a bang and getting myself struck off!

Dentistry is an aerosol generating procedure so is incredibly high risk for transmission. With the OP being an AHP I thought they’d have some insight into that...

I am under the hospital for my dental treatment (various health problems), they have cancelled everything bar emergencies.

Op, I hope you are able to be relieved of pain. Tooth ache is the worst.

@bookbuddy I'm sorry for the situation you are facing. I work for a dentist and it's really sad times. All the associates are left in limbo and PHE and BDA have been really slow at releasing information which is changing daily. And your right the available Ppe isn't available.

When will dentistry ever recover from this though? How will they ever be able to go back to work - the risk will be around for ages?

@Racheyg

Advice from the GDC here

www.gdc-uk.org/

Thanks @I0NA
The dentists are pretty good at keeping up to date with the guidelines. I was more suggesting to begin with it's a shame they aren't able to complete pts half way through tx etc.

Dentistry will recover as it's always needed, but I'm sure there will be a lot less dentists about as if the restrictions with the hand pieces, 3 in 1 etc this will prevent dentists carrying out treatment for a long time.

Will dentistry ever recover
But modern life is not possible without dentistry, we have to find a way for dentist to be able to practice otherwise we will all be incapacitated by our teeth 😱😳😖

Sadly I think a lot will fold. Even with furloughed staff our practice has fixed running costs and no income. Yes we can borrow but with no income (not even the self employed 2500 as earned too much - and not via dividends before anyone says), that is risky. We have savings for own expenses but cannot afford to subsidise the business for an unlimited time. We are not alone by a long shot. We aren’t getting the rates relief etc or the cash grants the shops are getting. The future for dentistry is grim due to this lack of support. But the nhs would like them to volunteer for their clinical skills - if nhs they will be paid for this by not being penalised for missing targets. Private dentists just being asked to volunteer, whilst their business crumbles. Very sad.

I have been suffering pain for days, woke up with swollen mouth unable to smile on one side. I already have chronic nerve pain but this doesn’t normally happen. I know it’s emergencies only, but extreme pain is an emergency. Add to that lockdown and social isolation. I think there will be suicides.

I have a completely broken tooth on one side and tooth ache with a bit broken off on the other side. I'm not a key worker and I'm terrified of going to a dentist to get it sorted right now. I figure as long as I can cope with it it'll be fine. I'm also terrified of dentists which doesn't help.
It's very hard to know what to do right now for a lot of people but for me I think I'll stick it out at home in the hope that this ends soon and I can go when it's safe.

There is emergency dental care available for people in pain which can’t be managed with painkillers or with serious swelling .

Please look online for the details for your local area. Phone your own dentist if you have one, they are doing triage.

You don’t need to be a key worker to get emergency treatment.

What happens if you are paying a monthly amount for dental care?