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Getting back to business during these challenging times

Spending lots of time in patients’ faces makes dentists and their staff uniquely vulnerable to contracting Covid-19. But dental offices are struggling to find the protective equipment they need, even as they begin to reopen across the country.

While dentists are spending tens of thousands of dollars on air-purifying gadgets, air-suction devices and room filters, they are having issues securing the basics: personal protective equipment like N95 and KN95 respirators, high-grade surgical masks, gowns and face shields.

“It’s been impossible to get enough proper PPE equipment,” said Don Yoshikawa, a 71-year-old dentist with a private practice in Huntington Beach, Calif. “My dental supply company has been on back-order for months.”

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Dr. Yoshikawa has spent around $25,000 on equipment such as high-efficiency particulate air filters and extraoral vacuums—large suction devices that are placed near the patient’s mouth. But he hasn’t been able to obtain new N95 or high-grade surgical masks, he said. He has some left over from pre-Covid days, and he and his colleagues will have no choice but to use them more than once, he said. He reopened his practice this week after closing it in mid-March when the American Dental Association recommended dentists postpone all elective procedures.

The ADA’s recommendation expired April 30, and the group said it was up to local governments to decide after that. In an ADA poll from mid-May of 6,504 dentists, 53.2% of those whose practices were closed said they were unable to reopen because they lacked an adequate supply of PPE. Around a quarter of those respondents said they were concerned about transmission of Covid-19 to their dental team.

“That is the No. 1 concern I am hearing from members,” said Chad Gehani, president of the ADA, adding that he gets around 60 phone calls and more than 100 emails about PPE shortages each day.

(06/15/2020)
by Sarah ToyViews: 422
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