As you will know, the Prime Minister has confirmed that public restrictions will be significantly eased on 19th July 2021.
Under the Government's guidance "Health and care settings will continue to maintain appropriate infection prevention and control processes as necessary and this will be continually reviewed.
Guidance will be updated based on the latest clinical evidence this summer." You can find this online: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-summer-2021-roadmap/covid-19-response-summer-2021#contents
In line with the Government’s guidance, England’s Chief Dental Officer has informed us that the infection prevention control measures in dentistry should continue to be followed until further notice. These are important measures from Public Health England aimed at limiting the spread of the virus in dental settings. At Broad Street Dental Surgery we have continued to invest in the latest equipment and PPE to keep both our staff and patient's as safe as possible. This is why we will be asking patient's to continue to follow our cross-infection measures.
This means two things for patients:
1. If you come into the surgery for an appointment, please remember that social distancing remains in place in the dental practice and to wear a face covering upon entering the building.
2. We will continue to have restrictions on leaving time between patients to ventilate rooms if we perform an aerosol generating procedure. An aerosol generating procedure (AGP) is a medical procedure that can result in the release of airborne particles (aerosols) from the respiratory tract when treating someone who is suspected or known to be suffering from an infectious agent transmitted wholly or partly by the airborne or droplet route. In dentistry, for example, this means the use of something like a high speed drill. This impacts how many patients we can fit into a working day.
Similar public health measures are still in place for hospitals and GP practices, too.
Every dental practice is working extremely hard to provide care to our patients within the restrictions and guidance to ensure it’s safe to visit the dentist.
We hope that this helps clarify why these measures are in place at Broad Street Dental Surgery.
Please do give us a call if you need to discuss any of the above issues with us or have any concerns.
Best wishes,
Andrew Farr, Broad Street Dental Surgery
