{"id":192,"date":"2020-05-04T21:10:44","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T21:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mydentalbellingham.com\/blog\/?p=192"},"modified":"2020-06-04T21:16:32","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T21:16:32","slug":"dentist-in-bellingham-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mydentalbellingham.com\/blog\/dentist-in-bellingham-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Dentist Ensures Your Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\"A<\/a>Back in the old days, dentists would take a few minutes to wash their hands, throw on some disposable gloves and a mask, and be ready to perform any number of dental treatments. However, the current COVID-19 pandemic is causing many dental professionals to take a closer look at their current safety standards. The next time you need to visit a dentist in Bellingham,<\/a> you can expect far more strict safety protocols to reduce disease transmission, which you can read about in more detail below!\r\n\r\n\r\n

Patient Accommodations<\/h2>\r\nDental visits should be easier and safer for patients during a pandemic, which is why dentists are taking many steps to make their visits more accommodating to their needs. For example, operating hours are longer so patients can get more dental treatments done and minimize the time they need to spend outside of the house. Practices are also making waiting areas virtual (by having patients wait in their vehicles instead), screening patients for COVID-19 symptoms, reducing the number of patients seen in a given day, establishing at-risk patient hours, and making it easier for entire families to complete visits.\r\n

Daily Healthy Checks of Team Members<\/h2>\r\nCOVID-19 is a relatively new type of virus, which means team members need to be trained in additional awareness and prevention programs to reduce disease transmission. Not only does this mean front desk employees, assistants, and hygienists need to have healthy checks performed daily, but they need to make sure their hygiene standards are increased. For example, team members cannot have long or fake fingernails or wear jewelry while in the office.\r\n

Changing of Work Clothes<\/h2>\r\nFollowing the end of the work day, team members must change into clean clothing before exiting the office. Work clothes are either disposed of in proper receptacles or washed and sterilized thoroughly after each use. The last thing employees want to do is potentially spread germs they picked up while in the office or bring in germs they collected while wearing dental gear in public.\r\n

Better Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)<\/h2>\r\nDentists already wear surgical masks and gloves before treatments, but COVID-19 makes it even more important to wear additional PPE. This includes the use of disposable coats and hats. It\u2019s also common to find installed clear barriers at the front desk and throughout the office between patients and team members.\r\n

Strict Sterilization Protocols<\/h2>\r\nSterilization of hands as well as the office itself are two of the most effective ways to stop the spread of disease because it outright kills the virus at its source. Some of these protocols include:\r\n