How long before dentists can actively treat?

[ChocRasp]

I was partway through treatment just before lockdown and have had awful problems with an abscess since the end of March.
The dentist, who I really rate, has prescribed me three lots of antibiotics but I need root canal.
I've got an emergency appointment tomorrow but the receptionist advised me that it will just be for advice. Plus I have to pay £70.
It seems some dentists are treating again, should I find one that is? I'm not sure of the protocol.

What was the government date for dentists to reopen? I need to call my dentist and see what their position is. It is a mixture of private and NHS, I'm an NHS patient entitled to free dental treatment. I want a check up due to mild on/off pain in one area of my teeth (probably wisdom teeth so likely just need reassurance but I want it checking). I also need to check the fit and collect a mouth guard to stop myself chewing my gums at night (get sore gums/mouth ulcers on and off due to this) that I was meant to sort pre-lockdown but my appt got cancelled by the surgery as my dentist was off sick and then we had lockdown. I'm guessing these are relatively low risk for the dentist, but I guess it depends how my practice is prioritising requests for treatment etc. Also DD is due a routine check this month too actually, will only be her 2nd ever (she's almost 2). Might give them a ring tomorrow.

I'm not sure how private practices are seeing one patient and hour doing aerosol procedures as 1 hour has to be left after the procedure before a surgery can even be cleaned. I would struggle to see 4 patients

Presumably because there is more than one dentist/room.

And not every patient will need aerosol procedures.

I desperately need a new night guard because I have chomped through mine. I emailed my surgery today to see if they would be able to start the request for approval to have it done on the NHS (have had this with my last few, but approval last time took three months). I’m in Scotland so no idea when they will open, but I think they will still have my impressions from last year. I missed a checkup in April and lockdown anxiety means I have been clenching my teeth a lot more!

Like meadowhay my surgery is a mix of NHS and private. I am an NHS patient but opt in to private for things like airflow polish, and do pay for treatment.

I had to call my (private) dentist yesterday as I developed excruciating pain in my gums, seemingly centered round one tooth. They surprised my by saying they are open but using a lot of precautions, only one patient in at a time, masks, etc and a ton of paperwork.

I ended up having phone triage and antibiotics prescribed as it appears I have a gum infection rather than a bad tooth (they would have seen me had it been the latter). My dentist said they have a ton of urgent cases to see as you can imagine, and people seem to be having 'the worst' cases of even mouth ulcers. Seems to be a lockdown phenomenon!

The prescription was emailed to a local pharmacy where my DP was able to pick it up (one person allowed in the shop at a time). Thank Goodness this morning the pain has subsided, I hadn't been able to sleep before.

I don't know if they were doing aerosol procedures, there are 2 treatment rooms there plus they have a hygienist (no idea if she is working right now). It really is a miserable time for anyone with pressing dental issues.

It’s a mess!
Wales/ Scotland/NI have different plans and I’m sure January is the plan for business as usual in one of those, I would have to check which.
We have been given about 6 different standard operating procedures to choose from. One certainly said emergencies only while in pandemic level 4/5- have we moved to 3 yet?
Most people I know, even private, are doing emergencies only at the moment. Routine stuff to gradually start as staff get used to the new way of working. Some places still closed for training, fit testing or waiting for PPE. Some closed because you’ll make a loss trying to work like this and they can’t afford it.
Aerosol generating procedures- at ours we’re only having one dentist in per day, partly for social distancing and partly so we have 3 surgeries to rotate for fallow time.
I would try and get booked in for July or August.
Personally I will be back at work in September if schools and childcare is back to normal then.

Seems I'm not alone which is a bit reassuring.
@Chrisinthemorning, if a patient had a 3m chronic infection would you mind telling me how you'd treat them? I wonder if I should go to the hub for extraction because that's the likely outcome anyway.

Our orthodontist is back to full range of treatments on 1st July. They have put in a range of measures etc.

My NHS dentist is opening on 1 July and the NHS orthodontist is open from tomorrow (8 June).

Another dentist here, we are still triaging by phone whilst the PPE starts to arrive, I have fit test training for the PPE this week, so staff fitting then we're ready to start seeing our poor patients that have been in pain.
As a profession in England we were not given notice by the Government of when we were to reopen and we were only given the official guidelines on the 4th June, PPE is in short supply and there are thousands of us chasing it.
Add into that they have just told Welsh dentists when they can start to reopen after the 1st July so they will also be chasing fit testing and PPE.
Private practices are under severe financial pressure they have had little or no financial help and the new recommendations for dental working mean we are going to see far fewer patients than normal.

I thought it was the 15th June.
But there's new rules being implemented.

No more than one patient an hr.

Can't use the drill (so can't do fillings or teeth cleaning with ultra sonic scalers).

High risk groups have to delay going to the dentist as long as possible.

The protocol is first you ring and make an appt, 3 days before your appt date your dentist will email you a medical questionnaire /covid19 screening questionnaire and a consent form, which you fill out and return all by email.

Your told to wear extra layers of clothing as the air in the room will be colder than usual, as air conditioning is used to replace the air in the room at regular intervals.

You have to attend the appt alone (unless need help walking) and to take only essential items with you.

When you arrive you have to stand outside as the dentist door will be locked, then you have to phone them and let them know you've arrived. Once it's safe to let you in they'll let you in, due to needing to wait for a patient to leave the building first and then needing to wipe all door handles and chairs down etc.

You'll then need to put your coat and belongings in a box in the reception area and will be asked to sanitize your hands.

You'll then be taken to your dentist.

You then have to sanitize hands before leaving.

I dont understand why they cant open. I know they dont want to get close to people but if the appointments are planned in advance, cant they test the patients in advance and if they're negative they can have the treatment done?

UnderTheBus we are all trying to open but hadn't been given the guidelines for opening until last Thursday and were only told we were allowed to open again a week before that. You can't plan exactly to open without being told how you're going to do it.
We have been told we need to wear the highest level of PPE so what they wear in ITU to treat Covid cases for anything we use a drill or spray for. There is a severe shortage of this kit, it also needs to be fitted by a trained fitter and there are 15,000 dental practices all scrabbling for testers and kit.
It's OK though the department of Health has release limited amounts of PPE they have been hoarding in the last 24 hours- please read that with a sarcastic tone so we're all saved.

My orthodontist is open from this week though (my son has already had an appointment). Is it harder for dentists?

Most ortho is not aerosol generating so yes it’s harder to do general dentistry.

Mine is open from this week only fir emergency treatment (which includes abscesses). I really feel for you. I have an abscess too and hate taking antibiotics. It's not good for you to take them repeatedly. I just my tooth out now! I've had enough. He give my a littke syringe with a needle so I can inject corsodyl (?) in to it each day. I'm also doing oil pulling (swishing coconut oil around my mouth for 20 mins!!). Both are helping to keep it under control.

It's a real mess. Scottish dentist here. Each region in U.K. has a different approach. We have had a small mount of funding from NHS. In reality, after overheads I'm taking home a third of my wages. Have had to halt mortgage/business loan etc
We cannot open yet due to aerosol procedures such as drills potentially spreading virus. There is chat re face fitting for expensive FFP3 masks etc, however I agree with a PP who suggested pre appointment testing as a more viable option.
However there appears to be a ban on testing for primary care settings.
We have a large practice, 15,000 patients. At least 760 patients requiring urgent care, who have contacted us during lockdown.
We were "lucky" that the NHS supplies us with PPE from their central stock. Whoop e do! We got six boxes of medium and small gloves. No large.
We gave all our PPE away at the start of lockdown to local nursing homes. Now we need to replenish stock. Full PPE ( non aerosol procedures) prior to lockdown cost 33p per use.
Now that figure @ £38 each. Or £76 per treatment as both dentist and nurse need kitted up.
Our practice normally sees 140 patients a day. When we open up for emergencies we will be allowed a maximum of 10 patients per day.
We will need to pay staff full wages to work in shifts. We will have full working costs- rent, rates, utilities, software, etc.
The nhs funding was approx 80% of of average pay. Nothing for private work which supplements staff wages etc. Opticians got full pay. Don't know why ours was reduced...
added to all these issues is the worry of the tsunami of cases we have ahead of us when we can finally work again. Not to mention possible law suits, the patients who were prescribed antibiotics instead of treatment options. The ones taking out their own teeth
Not to mention our laboratory technician colleagues, whose work has dropped to zero.
It's truly frightening. And yet the public still see us negatively. An article in The Times at the weekend about the plight of general dental services had a comment box underneath. The comments were mostly along the lines of "well, sell one of your Porsche's then".
That may be the case for a small number of private dentists who were doing well prior to lockdown, but trust me, in the world of NHS dentistry, nothing could be further from the truth

It’s crap, my son has special needs and has had his appointment at the end of August cancelled ☹️

@porpoiseinlife Can I just say that I don't think those stupid comments were reflective of the wider population, whenever I see an article about anything it has nasty comments on it! Please know that we really appreciate your hard work and the struggles you are all facing in trying to keep your practices going throughout all this. The government has totally failed to protect dentistry - well previous ones have always also failed dentistry but the current situation has been ludicrous. I've always been an NHS dentistry patient and I've moved around a bit so had quite a few different dentists despite only being in my twenties and I don't have a single bad story to tell. I really wish that dentistry got the focus that it deserves.

Thank you Meadowhay. That means a lot

My dentist is operating from Monday. Their email said they will be seeing all patients who were receiving a course of treatment prior to lockdown, anyone in pain who was unable to get an appointment at a hub and all other emergencies, as priority. Those with routine appointments which were booked before lockdown will have them cancelled and people will be notified when non urgent appointments will restart.

I had raging toothache about 10 days before lockdown and was offered root canal treatment or an extraction. Thank the heavens I went for an immediate extraction!

I called my dental surgery today. They said they are open but only for emergencies/people who have needed urgent treatment in the lockdown period but couldn't get seen. I was meant to have an appt to check the fit of a mouth guard and collect it pre-lockdown which got cancelled due to the dentist being off sick. So I asked if I could just come and collect the mouth guard and skip the fit check appt and they said that would probably be fine but to call back tomorrow morning when the dentist is there to do triage as they will decide. So fingers crossed. I wanted an appt for the mild tooth pain I had recently but it's gone anyway but I would still like an appt for reassurance but dunno when I will be able to be seen. DD2 is also due her second ever dental check up too.

I just can’t get my head round how people are being left in agony and somehow it’s alright.

It’s not alright. The NHS ‘hubs’ where “there is a range of treatments available” should pick this up. Only that’s a lie as there is only one treatment:extraction unless it’s just a case of blobbing temp filling on top of a broken tooth or removing an already visible root or somesuch that doesn’t need drilling. Happy to be corrected if I’m wrong though.

And it’s not dentists fault, they don’t have the supplies they need to do the job. I don’t see how they can do any aerosol procedures unless they spend a lot of time and effort cleaning every single surface after each patient, which is time consuming and tiring. And as @porpoiseinlife says it’s prohibitively expensive. Unless there is an alternative to protect all concerned, like some kind of extractor fan like a cooler hood arrangement fitted above the chair to try and suck up any spray or airborne contaminants - with a hose straight to the outdoors so air is not recirculated.

Talking of which, I don’t see how anywhere with air com can reopen as the virus will just be circulated round everywhere in the building? Having said that they have air con in hospitals and not everyone has been infected in there.....
So many unknowns.

Never probably to NHS dentistry. No doubt we will return to the medieval times of pulling out our own rotting teeth. I’m lucky that I can pay privately but it’s expensive. A root canal was £500.

Re air con. Most surgeries have individual units that vent outside rather than central. These are fine.