Which emergency dental services can you still access during COVID?

Stoney Trail Dental is committed to providing comprehensive dental services, including emergency dental services during this unprecedented time. Over the past several months, our business and our patients have faced challenges in regard to receiving their dental services. Due to the pandemic, we had to shut down completely at the end of March and were devastated that we could not serve our patients for almost two months.

On May 14th, 2020, our government began our reopening in a three-phase plan; as an essential service, dental clinics were included in phase 1 of the reopening and we reopened immediately. Luckily, we are back up and running at (almost) full force now, with a lot of new cleaning and procedure protocols, to keep our staff and patients safe.

One of the questions we have addressed frequently over the past few months is: Which emergency dental services can you still access over COVID-19?

Our short answer is that we are providing all emergency services at this time; however, there is a screening process that patients must partake in before services are provided in person. Before we outline how we are providing emergency services during this time we want to briefly discuss what qualifies as an emergency.

A dental emergency is an oral or dental issue requiring immediate attention. This may include oral-facial trauma, oral infection, oral bleeding, unmanageable oral pain, or management of known/high-risk malignancy etc.

Emergency Dental Services at Stoney Trail Dental:

Stoney Trail Dental clinic follows the Alberta Dental Association & College, COVID-19 Dental Emergency Protocol as a guide for how we are serving our patients during COVID-19. There are 4 steps to this protocol that allow us to effectively evaluate our patient’s needs and how they should be served.

Step 1:

Patient call and risk factor discussion

We require all patients, or a loved one of the patients, to call the clinic for a short COVID-19 screening call prior to commencing services. Questions will include asking the patient about COVID-19 symptoms and COVID-19 exposure. If the patient is deemed safe to treat, the clinic will then move on to step 2.

Step 2:

During this step, we will converse and evaluate what assessment plan is best suited for the patient. At this time there are three assessment plan options for the patient, these include:

1. Problem managed via remote dentistry
2. Pharmaceutical management
3. Physical assessment in the clinic

Step 3:

If the patient requires a physical assessment they will be booked in for “in-office” treatment.

Step 4:

The patient will be treated in the clinic and all staff providing the treatment will be required to wear proper PPE according to the treatment the patient is receiving. If the patient requires a non-aerosol treatment the current IPC standards will apply to the treatment with PPE, including gloves, surgical masks and protective eyewear during their treatment. If the patient requires an aerosol-generating treatment then the staff of the clinic will require both current IPC and enhanced PPE. Enhanced PPE includes: protective clothing, gloves, fitted N-95 masks (or equivalent as per Health Canada), appropriate protective eyewear or face shield.

Stoney Trail Dental is proud to be providing comprehensive emergency dental care in SE Calgary. Have a question pertaining to emergency dental services? Contact us today.