How to deal with the dental management during the coronavirus crisis?

The new coronavirus has created very serious challenges for both health and the economy worldwide. You may have noticed that your dental clinic will not be immune. Your entire business plan will suffer.

This is the time to have an efficient dental management in the midst of the crisis. So check out our information.

How are dental clinics?

The main way to stem the spread of the virus and disease known as COVID-19 remains social isolation. For this reason, many establishments are behind closed doors during this period - and the recommendation is somewhat extended to dental offices.

In private dentistry, decisions for the performance of clinics depend on municipal, state and federal regulations - therefore, the definition of keeping your clinic closed or open will start from these laws.

In this sense, the Dentistry Councils recommend that dentists and managers be aware of and obey the decrees determined for dental management. In addition, there are guidelines for managing dentists that come from the boards themselves. The Regional Councils of Dentistry (CROs) have recommendations that follow a predominant content of caution. It is recommended that treatments and elective treatments be suspended, to avoid unnecessary contamination. In this case, urgent and emergency treatments would be recommended.

It is worth remembering that this is not an obligation, but an orientation. The decision to give dental care or not is at the discretion of the Dental Surgeon, as long as it follows the regional legislation and the ethical standards of the profession. In addition, the Federal Council of Dentistry (CFO) published a note in which it recommends "caution and care in the activities performed by oral health professionals who work throughout the national territory".

What is urgency and emergency in dental management?

As the recommendation is to preferentially make urgent and emergency care at your dental clinic, you need to understand what these procedures are.

The table below differentiates which are urgent and emergency care, and which are elective, according to the American Dental Association (ADA), in a publication of 2020. It is worth remembering that this is the classification also presented by the CFO.

Urgency / emergency:
- Irreversible pulpitis;
- Pericoronitis;
- Surgical postoperative osteitis or dry cavity dressing change;
- Abscess or localized bacterial infection, resulting in localized pain and swelling;
- Tooth fracture resulting in pain or causing trauma to the soft tissues;
- Dental trauma with avulsion / dislocation;
- Making temporary restoration in case the restoration is lost, broken or is causing gingival irritation;
- Extensive caries or defective restorations that cause pain;
- Removal of sutures;
- Denture adjustments in patients with radiation / oncology;
- Denture adjustments or repairs when function is impeded;
- Replace the temporary filling in the endodontic access openings in patients with pain;
- Cutting or adjusting a wire or orthodontic appliances that perforate or ulcerate the oral mucosa.

Elective
- Initial dental or maintenance exams;
- Routine radiographs;
- Dental prophylaxis;
- Routine periodontal therapy;
- Orthodontic procedures different from those to treat acute problems (for example, pain, infection, trauma);
- Extraction of asymptomatic teeth;
- Restorative dentistry, including treatment of asymptomatic carious lesions;
- Aesthetic dental procedures.

How to make calls during the COVID-19 crisis?

The Federal Council of Dentistry (CFO), together with the Brazilian Association of Intensive Care Medicine (AMIB) also released a booklet of recommendations for care, guiding the safety processes to be taken.

In summary, the document presents information on screening patients with suspected or contaminated with COVID-19, recommendations on conduct for hospital dental treatment, for the use of personal protective equipment, among other indications.

These guidelines are essential and must be followed in any situation! The health of dentists, assistants and patients’ needs to be a priority currently.

Coronavirus challenges for dentist management

Both this moment and the next few weeks, and maybe even months, will be quite challenging for your dental management. Therefore, it is necessary to know the challenges of the coronavirus for your work and to avoid errors in dental management.

The first, as we have seen, is that all your services must be adapted to this new reality, with even more equipment and appropriate techniques to protect everyone involved.

It is also necessary to consider that your clinic will certainly have less movement and, consequently, less revenue. In the meantime, some of your expenses will remain the same. Therefore, it is necessary to make an adequate financial control, save where possible and try to make your income last longer.

To do this efficiently, you can count on the reports and metrics of your dental management software, which let you know where your expenses are going and control what your receipts are. It can also be a good time to deal with defaulting customers and seek to collect.

There is, however, yet another challenge for the coronavirus to be considered by its dental management. The distance between your office and the patients puts at risk all the loyalty work you have been doing with them. So, this is the best time to get in touch with them through social networks! Try to follow the treatments directly with the patients, contact them during this period, be available to answer questions and show that your dental clinic really cares.

It is also possible to invest in digital marketing, producing content for your patients to be informed about treatments and to continue having a relationship with your clinic.

Source: Dental Office. Available at: https://www.dentaloffice.com.br/gestao-odontologica-com-o-coronavirus. Accesso on: 03/22/2020.