Will the dentists remain open during this third lockdown?

[Swags12]

Hi everyone hope everyone is staying safe and doing well. I wanted to ask if dentists would still remain open as my cousin who I live with has an appointment on the 8th and 16th January to have his braces put on and not sure if it still will be open. I tried looking online but I have been getting mix answers and not sure.
Can you let me know about this please.

@TheAnswerIsCake Are you, in fact, my husband? That’s basically exactly what he would say. Nobody knew where the dentists stood at all in lockdown one - they were totally forgotten about at the start of all this.

@TheAnswerIsCake thanks for your explanation. However when they cancelled my first appointment back in the summer to catch up with the backlog due to lockdown I understood. To now cancel them again it can’t be because of more backlog as they’ve been open. Also I did have an email in the last few months saying they were open for cosmetic dentistry! Surely if they’ve capacity for unnecessary treatment like that then they shouldn’t be cancelling routine kids appointments (twice)! Is there any point in me speaking to the practice manager? I’m doing my best they brush twice a day etc but I’m really concerned that it’s over 1 year now since they’ve been looked at.

Yes my eldest needs orthodontics but same as you. It can’t all be emergencies, or maybe emergencies because they’ve cancelled all the routine checkups!! National Covid Service taken over dentistry as well!

Of course there’s a backlog! They were not allowed to treat patients for months. Then when they were allowed to open, they were only able to treat a few patients each day as rooms have to be left fallow between aerosol generating procedures ( AGPs). And they need extra time for cleaning in between patients. And treatments take longer as they can’t use a high speed drill if the room wasn’t booked for an AGP.

They are still trying to catch up with patients whose treatment was stopped 10 months ago. And no I don’t mean check ups, I mean people who lost a front tooth and had a gap in the front of their mouth for 6 months.

Or older people who lost weight and found it hard to eat because their dentures didn’t fit. Or people who had nothing but temporary filling for months. That’s very distressing.

So no, many of them are not able to do check ups or hygienist appointments yet. I understand that’s annoying but it’s not the worst thing that’s happened in the pandemic. They have to prioritise, just like the rest of the NHS.

Mine has been closed since March

@C0NNIE

Of course there’s a backlog! They were not allowed to treat patients for months. Then when they were allowed to open, they were only able to treat a few patients each day as rooms have to be left fallow between aerosol generating procedures ( AGPs). And they need extra time for cleaning in between patients. And treatments take longer as they can’t use a high speed drill if the room wasn’t booked for an AGP.

They are still trying to catch up with patients whose treatment was stopped 10 months ago. And no I don’t mean check ups, I mean people who lost a front tooth and had a gap in the front of their mouth for 6 months.

Or older people who lost weight and found it hard to eat because their dentures didn’t fit. Or people who had nothing but temporary filling for months. That’s very distressing.

So no, many of them are not able to do check ups or hygienist appointments yet. I understand that’s annoying but it’s not the worst thing that’s happened in the pandemic. They have to prioritise, just like the rest of the NHS.

All of that I understand but why offer cosmetic dentistry if they’re so busy with emergencies? I’d love Invisalign but does it need doing right now if routines are being neglected!