When are dentist reopening? Any ideas?

[FridayAddams]

I was wondering when dentists will open again. I know they are open for emergencies, but only for severe, life threatening ones. When do you think they will go back to routine procedures?

@TeacupDrama yes, by the end of June, hopefully, dentists will be allowee to happen, maybe seeing less patients and with appropriate N95. I think most private practices are suffering this situation and obviously fear they won't be able to reopen.

I blame the government, this has been really poor judgement on their side, dentistry is extremely important, just as any other branch of healthcare.

I had an appointment due this week, they have rescheduled it to August and said that’s the earliest any appointments are being scheduled

@Paddingtonthebear was it with a hospital? My husband was meant to have a tooth extracted in April, but it has been rescheduled for september.

No just normal nhs practice

We were told we had to stop working by the Chief Dental Officer. The GDC and the CQC backed this up. We are not allowed to do any face to face at the moment or we could be struck off.

I think it's right that face to face consultations are stopped but at my families practice (private) there is a one sentence message in the website telling us to call 111 for advice.

Why can't we call the practice for advice? I don't understand that! They are the ones getting £50 p/m in fees. Not the NHS!

I understand that if, after a a phone consultation, I were to need to be seen, I would have to go to a hospital but they are offering nothing even in terms of advice and are passing everything over to an already stretched NHS.

Well practices are supposed to be doing phone triage and AAA- advice, analgesia and antibiotics. Mine certainly is.

@Paddingtonthebear I see. My practice is private and their are aiming to increase their daily hours when this is over (they already work 6 days a week, 8am to 7pm). DH dentist is NHS and is not possible to reach him atm (but tbf even before was hard to get an appointment).

Well practices are supposed to be doing phone triage and AAA- advice, analgesia and antibiotics. Mine certainly is.

Mine certainly isn't.
Luckily. We've not needed anything and I only looked because I needed to check an appointment was cancelled.
Will probably look to move after this.

I had a check up scheduled for last week. It's been moved to July.

@Ghostlyglow yes, received an email yesterday saying they will open in July. Aren't able to schedule any appointments until then.

There are some emergency dentists open but the options they can provide are pretty medieval. If you are in pain? You have to either grin and bear it with painkillers or have a tooth extracted. Anything that requires ANY sort of drilling I'd not allowed, so if there's a bit of tooth decay, it cannot be treated and will mean that by the time dentists reopen, the tooth will be in a bad condition.

What could have been a routine removal of decay and a filling, if untreated for several months could mean either a root canal or worse, extraction if the decay has spread.

So, it's pretty grim, best advice is try not to bake too many sugary things!

@cealewis I was having treatment for gum disease, deep cleanings, so I guess by the time they will reopen it will be worse. Flossing and brushing meticulously, and not eating sugary things, is not helping, I still get lots of buildup.

By the way, Italian dentists are opening again these days, it's so horrible the Gov doesn't realize how important dental care is. I might as well start saving for a dental bridge.

I spoke to mine yesterday and they were hoping the end of June which I can't see happening.

I have read on the website of a local practice end of May, but it seems a bit optimistic. Hopefully it will happen soon, I can't believe nobody talks about it! Boris Johnson speech didn't mention it.

Wow do you realise how dangerous aerosol generates procedures are? Until it's safe to do so I hope practices don't open for a long time. I work in hospital dentistry and the change had been drastic. When we do reopen some areas such as orthodontics it will be 6 patients per day per clinician to give time to properly put on and remove PPE and disinfect the room correctly. General dentistry will have a very very long backlog.

They’ll only go back once PPE supplies are good.

Snag is that hospitals are being prioritised such that there still isn’t enough for the dental hubs for urgent procedures. And PPE for doctors/nurses/care homes is part of the 5 tests for lifting lockdown; needs of dentistry just aren’t featuring as a national urgent priority.

So it’s going to be an age until a typical dentist can reopen, for anything other than advice and possible referral

The reason there’s no outcry on MN about these closures is because of a very informative thread earlier in, and most MNers are not so heartless as to expect people to work in a hugely risky environment without PPE

Wow do you realise how dangerous aerosol generates procedures are? Until it's safe to do so I hope practices don't open for a long time

Then you better than me hoe important dentistry is for most people. It's not just a cosmetic need like Botox.

How can dentistry not be considered a priority when it comes to people's health? It's not a matter of being heartless or cruel, but lots of people are in pain or are resorting to pulling their own teeth out.