Staying home as much as you can is the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, if you do need to go out, it’s important to know which places are safe and which are not when it comes to the coronavirus. A recent MIT study ranked the safety of visiting 26 types of places during the COVID-19 pandemic according to how essential they are and their level of risk. Their results found that some of the safest places to visit during the pandemic included banks, colleges, and dental offices. Read on to learn more about why you can visit your Midlothian dentist and get the dental care you need with confidence.
Dental Offices Are Impeccably Clean
Dental offices have always adhered to strict levels of sanitation and sterilization, long before the COVID-19 pandemic. They utilize a wide variety of infection control protocols to protect you from sicknesses like the common cold and the flu. These precautions are being held to even higher standards now! The next time you visit your dentist, you may notice the low hum of medical grade HEPA air filters. They’ll also continue to completely sterilize all their dental tools and instruments with methods outlined by the CDC, including high heat, steam under pressure, and chemical vapors. These are just a few of the additional steps your dentist is taking to safeguard your wellbeing during the pandemic.
Dentists Can Promote Social Distancing
Practicing social distancing can be a challenge in some public settings like grocery stores and other essential businesses. Thankfully, your dentist has made staying six feet apart from others a practical reality with a variety of measures, including:
- Decreasing their capacity by 75% to minimize patient exposure.
- Offering extended appointment to prevent the need for multiple visits.
- Allowing you to check in and wait from the comfort of your car.
- Requiring patients to wear face coverings and staff to wear various PPE like masks, face shields, and disposable protective coats.
- Asking patients to comply with a no-touch temperature check, use hand sanitizer, and rinse with mouthwash before dental care is administered.
Why Dental Care Is More Important Than Ever
In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary for dental practices to postpone all non-emergency appointments in order to conserve PPE for other medical professionals. However, now that dentists are prepared and reopening to provide routine care, it’s important that you visit them if you need dental work or a checkup because:
- Preventive care like dental checkups are essential for keeping problems like cavities and gum disease from developing.
- Since your teeth can’t heal themselves like the rest of your body, leaving dental issues untreated will only allow them to become more painful and destructive over time.
- Maintaining great oral health promotes a healthy body and a strong immune system.
It may be some time until life regains its pre-pandemic definition of normal. In the meantime, you can rest assured that your dentist is taking every precaution to keep you and your smile as healthy as possible in these unusual times!
About the Practice
At Legacy Dentistry, nothing is more important than the wellbeing of our patients and staff. Now and always, we are committed to providing the dental care you need while safeguarding your overall health. In addition to the ambitious sanitation standards set forth by the CDC, we have established numerous extra precautions to keep our practice as germ-free as possible. If you would like to learn more about what we’re doing to keep you safe during your appointment, you can find more information on our website or give us a call at (972) 723-1148.