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Patients ask, “Is it safe to go back to the dentist?”

August 19, 2020 By DentalBuzz Staff 3 Comments

The COVID-19 pandemic sucks.

Now that we’ve gotten that gross clarifying understatement out of the way, let’s quickly address the title of this article. Most likely, yes, it’s quite safe to go back to the dentist. You’re feeling a little scared to get your dental work done, or to get your teeth cleaned, still, because maybe, you don’t know what has changed at your dental office to assure that you’re not going to contract the coronavirus there.

To recap the last few months, non-emergency dental care was completely shut down for a while, which had less to do with patient safety and more to do with the severe shortage of masks and gloves. Now that manufacturers, opportunists, and supply chain managers are ~~going for the quick cash grab~~ able to provide adequate amounts of PPE to dental practices, visiting the dentist should be no more dangerous to your health than entering any other enclosed public space.

But! There’s this annoying thing about viruses and droplets and aerosols that make dentistry quite different from visiting most medical offices.

Like everything these days, it’s complicated.

You didn’t come here for the science or the reasons that dental offices have made changes. Instead, you simply want to know whether or not your particular office is doing the right things to keep you safe, now that they have had a few months to get used to new routines.

Abundant Safety Precautions and Screening

Are you being allowed to breathe, maskless, anywhere other than in a treatment room? Surely by now you’ve had to wear a mask in public, so if you’re permitted to enter a dental practice without one, consider that your first huge red flag that they may be cutting safety corners elsewhere.

Many dental practices are having patients phone or text their arrivals in from the parking lot, making it so that there’s no stop in the reception area except for a little screening time. Furthermore, team members may check your blood oxygen saturation, along with asking a series of questions and the usual temperature-taking.

Watch for: Touchless thermometers, plexiglas barriers, pulse oximeters (finger clamps), hand sanitizer, complimentary masks.

Anonymously Mummified Clinicians

If you’re not sure who is taking care of you, congratulations! Your dentist is under there, somewhere, but is not likely to come in contact with your salivary or nasal secretions as long as those layers stay in place. Some dentists have their well-protected team members wear not just nametags, but “facetags” these days, so that you have a face to associate with each human-shaped blob that hovers near your examination chair.

Also, you may need to bring a light jacket – the exam rooms may have the ambient temperatures turned down to reduce the heat exhaustion that clinicians feel under all of that gear.

Watch for: N95 masks, scrub caps, full protective gowns, face shields, sweating complaints.

Animal-Sized Airflow Management

The rationale here: if COVID sucks, dentistry must suck harder, quite literally. If there’s no control of where infectious particles end up, aerosolized viruses are allowed to settle in place or move from room to room. Instead of letting them linger and then finding their way into your body, new large suction devices are used to pull the air directly into a filtration system that traps virus particles, making the dental environment much safer for both patients and the office staff.

Another way that dental offices are knocking down virus particles is with a powerful virus-killing fog machine. You probably won’t be able to see indications that the office is using this technology, but it never hurts to ask how they are cleaning rooms between patients.

Watch for: Large air funnels, things that look like vacuum cleaners, faint chlorine smells, HEPA purifiers

Low Aerosol Dental Treatment

In dentistry, water is utilized as a coolant to keep drills and cleaning tools from getting too hot. Unfortunately, aerosols are a big no-no right now, so there will be only the minimal amount of water used during your visits. Expect your preventive dental cleaning to be delivered quietly, with the use of hand tools only.

You may be asked to pre-rinse with iodine or hydrogen peroxide before opening your mouth for the first time, and even may need to hold a cup to spit in to limit the amount of automatic suctioning needed. And don’t be surprised if your hygienist doesn’t apply any grit to your teeth. Cosmetic polishing has been known to cause excessive splatter, so most state dental boards are frowning upon allowing this procedure to be performed.

Watch for: Pre-rinses, hand scraping, spit cups, tongue-grabbing high speed suction, dry mouth

Isolation and Solitary Confinement

Even with all of the precautions taken, each clinician must be very careful not to contaminate anything outside of their direct treatment area while they’re with a patient. Doctors, assistants, and dental hygienists can no longer simply move freely through the office. Instead, they are expected to stay in place until full dental care is completed.

Simple tasks like asking questions and grabbing additional equipment is now largely left to those outside of a treatment room. This is because the time and costs needed to change gowns, masks, shields, and the like have significantly increased. Dental teams are learning new ways to work together, by relying on internal collaboration software programs that give a dentist the ability to stay with one patient yet answer questions about another one via their private computer networks. If you work in a dental practice you may find the article below helpful:

Practice Communication has Changed: Isolation in the age of COVID-19

Watch for: Computerized communication systems, waiting patiently, hand signals, excessive sharing of life stories

Coronavirus has significantly altered the way that dental care is delivered, probably forever, and probably for the better. If you don’t see any differences in how care is given the next time you visit your local practice – watch out! It may mean that, in your case, when asking “is it safe to go back to the dentist?” the answer is no.

References:

ADA News: Dentistry is essential health care. https://www.ada.org/en/publications/ada-news/2020-archive/august/ada -who-guidance-recommending-delay-of-dental-care

World Health Organization: Considerations for the provision of essential oral health services in the context of COVID-19 https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/who-2019-nCoV-oral-health-2020.1

Practice Communication Has Changed: Isolation in the age of COVID-19 https://www.bluenotesoftware.com/isolation-in-the-age-of-covid19

DOCS Education – S.T.A.R. WARS: Addressing Aerosols in Dentistry https://www.docseducation.com/blog/star-wars

Free “return to work guide” from the American Dental Association

April 27, 2020 By DentalBuzz Staff Leave a Comment

Did you try to access this guide on the American Dental Association website, but have decided that you don’t want to share your email address with them? Instead, use the link below to view the ADA COVID-19 pandemic recovery guide immediately:

https://success.ada.org/~/media/CPS/Files/Open%20Files/ADA_Return_to_Work_Toolkit.pdf

As a bonus, if you’re in Texas, or are just nosy about the current guidelines for dental practices reopening in this state very shortly, here’s that link as well:

Guidelines for Reopening Texas Dental Practices

Why COVID-19 increases your need for contactless payments

April 24, 2020 By DentalBuzz Staff 1 Comment

We love sharing good information that empowers dental practices to make unbiased decisions, which is why our friends at SoftwarePundit didn’t even have to send us any sort of payment, contactless or otherwise, to get the word out about their dental software review site. This category of solutions should be on the top of your research list right now, for obvious reasons.

by Bruce Hogan

Traditionally, dental practices have been slower to adopt new technology than other medical practices. Most dental professionals can understand why – implementing new technology is a time consuming and tedious process! However, the benefits of overcoming these barriers are often well worth the pain. Do you remember the days before automated appointment reminders? Without software tools, front-office staff were forced to manually call patients before every appointment!

Practices nationwide are increasingly adopting payment processing technology called contactless payments. Contactless payments refer to a variety of ways that patients can pay for treatments digitally, whether it’s paying through a text message or using a mobile wallet like Apple Pay. Patients are no longer forced to pay by mailing a check.

Why are dental practices starting to offer contactless payments? It’s what patients want! A recent study showed that 35% of customers are interested in paying with a text from their phone, but only 4% of small businesses offer this payment option. Additionally, 62% of buyers under the age of 35 would frequently or always pay with a text from their phone if they could. Allowing patients to pay the way they want to is an effective way to increase revenue and patient satisfaction.

Covid-19 is accelerating the need for dental practices to adopt payment technology. With shelter-in-place orders, patients can’t physically come into your office to pay for treatment they have received. Many practices are understaffed or closed right now, and do not have the capability to print and mail statements. Most importantly, when patients do begin returning to practices, contactless payments will allow patients to pay without any direct physical contact with your team.

Benefits of Contactless Payments for Dental Practices

There are three primary benefits of contactless payments: they lead to improved operational agility during crises like coronavirus, increased revenue, and reduced administrative workload.

Contactless Payments are Particularly Beneficial During Coronavirus

Contactless payments are ideal during Covid-19 because it allows patients to pay for treatments without being physically close to staff. Practices can use contactless payments to collect payments for services they have rendered prior to the shut down. This would be especially beneficial for cash-strapped practices that need an immediate influx of cash.

Additionally, contactless payments could be a part of the operational changes that practices make to increase safety after reopening. Contactless payments allow patients to maintain a safe distance from front-office staff when making payments. It’s congruent with the social distancing behavior that we’ve been practicing since March.

Finally, contactless payments are a valuable tool for practices that offer teledentistry appointments. After appointments are finished, you can immediately send patients a payment request digitally. This makes the payment process much easier and faster for both parties.

When practices offer patients more options to pay, they pay more often

Weave, a patient communication software company, commissioned an independent market research firm to survey a random sample of 380 small business customers and 350 small business owners to understand their behaviors and perceptions regarding payment options. In this study, the research firm found that small businesses that offer more payment options increased revenue by 29%. The study’s conclusion supports a common sense notion that we, as consumers, can all relate to – we are more likely to pay, if we can pay the way that we want to!

Contactless Payments Makes Billing Easier for You

Contactless payment software also reduces a lot of clerical work for dental practices. Traditionally, the collection process involves printing and mailing statements, entering billing information, and managing merchant accounts. Most contactless payment software automates these tasks for you. For example, the billing process using Weave’s text-to-pay feature involves a single text. The patient inputs their own payment information, and the software automatically processes the payment.

Types of Contactless Payments

There are several types of contactless payments. While they differ slightly, all share the benefit of patients being able to pay remotely.

Send Payment Requests by Text

Practices can use software tools, like Weave, Podium, and Doctible, to send payment requests by text. You simply enter the patient’s phone number, input a treatment amount, and attach a statement. This is much easier than traditional collection methods that involve printing and mailing statements, collecting billing information, and charging each transaction manually! Patients input their own billing information into the text, payments are automatically processed, and the money goes straight into your bank account.

Send Payment Requests by Email

Many software tools allow you to send payment requests by email. The process is similar to sending payment requests by text. You enter the patient’s email address, attach statements, and enter payment amounts. The software takes care of the rest.

Process Payments with a Desktop Application

For patients more comfortable paying for treatment over the phone, many solutions have desktop applications with a payment-processing tool. Front-office staff can input card information directly into the app, and the tool automatically processes the payment.

Receive Payments Through Mobile Wallets

Many patients prefer paying for treatment using a mobile wallet, like PayPal OneTouch and Apple Pay. Making this payment option available makes the billing process more convenient for your patients.

How to Get Started with Contactless Payments

Here’s a list of steps that we recommend when searching for the right vendor. Typically, the process takes about 1-2 months from initial research to completed software implementation.

Create a Short-list of Potential Vendors

Make a list of the vendors in the market that interest you. We recommend Doctible, Podium, and Weave to get your list started.

Research Each Vendor

While doing your research, keep an eye out for the most important qualities in the vendors. This includes price, features, and quality of customer service. SoftwarePundit provides in-depth analysis on many vendors that provide contactless payments. Check them out!

Talk to Existing Customers of Each Vendor

One of the best ways to learn about vendors is to speak with customers who have used the product first hand. Customers will typically speak candidly about what they like and dislike about the product, and give you a clear idea of what you should expect. SoftwarePundit for Dentists is a Facebook group created to serve as a platform for dentists to discuss dental software.

Go Through Sales Process

Reach out to each vendor, and begin the sales process. The sales process typically involves a series of steps including:

Introductory call
Product demo
Product testing
Contract negotiation & signing
Software implementation and staff training

Are You Ready to Find The Best Software for You?

Finding the right software to implement contactless payments can be a confusing process. Our job at SoftwarePundit is to make this process easier, and help you pick the best software that fits you and your team’s style and needs. Come visit our website if you have any questions about contactless payments in dentistry!

Bruce Hogan is Co-founder & CEO of SoftwarePundit, a technology research firm that provides advice, information, and tools to help businesses thrive. Bruce has experience investing at multi-billion dollar private equity firms, leading teams at venture-backed Internet companies, and launching new businesses.

A virtual care package from worried dental hygienists

April 2, 2020 By Trish Walraven 3 Comments

COVID-19 restrictions limit dental visits to all but emergency care, which means that millions of patients are overdue to have their teeth cleaned.

And because preventive services are not critical in the short term, all dental hygienists affected by the shut down are now out of work. However, the jobs will come back. What’s more concerning is the damage that may be happening in our patients’ mouths without a little extra intervention.

A few years back, do you remember the guidance that hygienists and dentists shared with you whenever we discovered that blue plastic bits were getting stuck under our patients’ gums? That was the dental community banding together here to get the word out, and we were able to convince manufacturers to stop adding plastic to toothpaste.

We’re coming together again in the same place, this time to pack a few personal items into your phone, tablet, computer, or whatever you’re looking at right now. This is the delivery we’re shipping to our patients, to take care of you with our thoughts and our hearts, and to share our best tips to make sure that you’re as healthy as possible at your next dental visit.

You want me to put my toothbrush where?

Care Package Item #1: Brushing your teeth with your other hand for the first minute, then switching hands.

This is all about about getting re-introduced to friction and tapping into novelty to help you learn something about yourself. When you pick up your toothbrush, you normally do so with your dominant hand. Instead (and this is THE KEY) you will grab your toothbrush with your other hand. If you’re a righty, then put your toothbrush in your left hand. Add toothpaste if you’d like and start brushing. Pay attention to how your gums feel when the bristles touch them. Most people don’t realize this, but they avoid touching their gums properly when they brush.

If it hurts to brush with your non-dominant hand, this is a sign that your toothbrush may be too hard, because soft brushes should feel pretty normal at this point. Keep brushing with your other hand, all around, then try to make the bristle contact feel the same when you place the toothbrush back in your dominant hand. It was surprising the first time I did this, because I realized I didn’t brush as well in areas that I thought I did. Even though I’m a hygienist, this helped me uncover weaknesses in my own brushing technique. Just watch out how you spit, because your other hand may now be in your trajectory field and end up all slobbery.

What’s your best flossing hack?

Care Package Item #2: Curved 3D flossers

As products go, this is a very specific one! There’s no substitute for using a string under your gumline, and if you have a tool that angles the string perfectly every time, you’re more likely to floss frequently and effectively. Make sure that your flosser is curved in 3D, not just flat:

With your 3D curved flosser, click the string between each place that your teeth make contact and floss deep under the gum tissue, once for each side, just like this:

I’ve demonstrated this on a front tooth for convenience, but the payoff of using these 3D flossers is when you get to really tight spaces in the back. My favorite brand is the Dentek Complete Clean Back Teeth, but there are others. Just make sure you purchase the curved flossers and not the flat ones.

Whoa, what should I do about blood or braces?

Care Package Item # 3: Soft Toothpicks

If you’re bleeding when you brush or floss, or can’t clean effectively with either of those items because of metalwork in your mouth, you’ve got to dig deeper. Remember, the stuff you’re trying to clean off of your teeth isn’t necessarily food; instead it grew there like a layer of pond scum, so you need to disrupt it as often as you clean your armpits.

Try gently poking deep into the areas that tend to bleed easily, like the gum pockets you’ve been told you have (that’s mine up there), or create some friction up in the gumline next to an orthodontic bracket or retainer wire. As long as you don’t feel any pain, you should be able to sweep away the germs that contribute to tooth loss with interdental cleaners like the Gum brand Soft Pick.

No toothpaste? Are you kidding?

Care Package Item #4: Brushing without toothpaste first

Hear me out – I am addicted to the feeling of mouth freshness. This is what the detergent industry has turned me into, a little mint whore. However, the foamy nature of toothpaste tends to obscure exactly what it is that I’m brushing, so periodically, I’ll spend the first 30 seconds of my brushing ritual without toothpaste. After that, it’s like an exciting reward, a delayed gratification of sorts. Hey, when you have to stay isolated from the rest of society for a while, the little joys start adding up.

Will overeating contribute to cavities?

Care Package Item #5: Swishing with water all day

A side effect of sheltering in place is boredom eating, which means excess carbohydrates fermenting in our mouths leading to a rapid increase in dental decay. To combat this, each time you eat, be sure to swish with a mouthful of water immediately afterwards. This will help you rinse away excess particles and acid. Remember – dentists are discouraged from filling cavities at the moment – they are more likely to be put in a position to pull an otherwise good tooth to get you out of immediate pain and danger of having a life-threatening dental abscess.

We’ve shared this article with you because we’re worried! Priorities are going to change in the coming months, and our careers are built on the foundation that patients should be able to keep their teeth for a lifetime with minimal professional care. Stay healthy, friends, and we look forward to seeing you back in the office as soon as possible.

Trish Walraven, RDH BS is a dental hygienist in the Dallas/Fort Worth area who is sad for so many of her colleagues that have lost their livelihoods. She would like to inspire her fellow hygienists and dentists to feel brave enough to share their concerns and best home care ideas so that we can begin the work of reconnection.

Lead Aprons feel so good! Here’s why.

October 30, 2019 By DentalBuzz Staff 1 Comment

Ever since you were a kid, you’ve known this: there’s a comfort that settles through you right before getting dental x-rays. You notice when the heavy shield gets draped over your shoulders and tummy that it’s a bit easier to relax, to open your mouth and let the dental professional twist things in your mouth at weird angles.

That comfort is called Deep Touch Pressure. It’s what swaddled babies feel with a tightly-wrapped blanket, what dogs experience when they wear a Thundershirt, and what up until recently has been known as a soothing technique primarily for kids and adults who are on the autism spectrum.

When Deep Touch Pressure is applied over a wide area, it switches the body from running its sympathetic nervous system to its parasympathetic nervous system. Deep touch pressure gives a sense that it’s okay to leave the “flight or fight” mode and settle into a “rest and digest” mode instead.

The sympathetic nervous system engages when you anticipate anything that is challenging, scary, or painful, while the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for releasing feel-good endorphins, relaxing muscles, and creating a sense of peace and calm.

To review, then, this person has their Sympathetic Nervous System fully engaged:

Person holding mouth as dentist and assistant sneak up behind.

Next, look at this little puppy enjoying its Parasympathetic Nervous System response:

No rhetorical questions here. You know you could just be the puppy forever.

There are stories like this one from Dr. Spindel’s blog that tell of patients wanting to keep the lead vest on for their entire appointment as a sort of security blanket. Only unlike her, once the x-rays are taken, most of us are nakedly shocked back into anxious uncertainty with the removal of the deep touch pressure feeling.

Um, hello?

You know exactly where this is going, right?

More than just a heavy Snuggie.

Pretty much every retail and online shop sells Deep Touch Pressure products now. This therapy is found in the form of weighted blankets which are much more comfortable and heavier than lead shields so yay!

If you’re a patient who gets a little anxious going to the dentist and you already have a weighted blanket that you shelled out $200 for when they first became available, try bringing the blanket to your next appointment to see if it helps.

And for those dental professionals reading this, you might consider getting a few weighted blankets for your office. You can find them as low as $50 each but current pricing hovers around $75 these days. Here’s an inexpensive fifteen-pounder seen in the local warehouse store this weekend:

Need something a little more rugged? These weighted blankets from DentaCalm are available in different sizes, can be wiped clean, and come in two colors:

Dental fear is real.

Even people who have been going to the dentist forever get nervous sometimes, like it wells up from some organic “gonna get you” place in our primitive perimeter warning system. Deep touch pressure helps to inhibit dental anxiety. Except for the anxiety within the dentists when slinking into a dental chair to get their teeth cleaned when there’s an opening in the schedule. Their stress comes from the fear that they’re about to be exposed as a fraud by their hygienist if the dentist’s gums bleed even one little speck during their preventive care. Sorry, the weighted blanket is simply not going to make up for not flossing.

Feeling calm is better.

Instead of shaming dentists for their questionable home care, then, let’s all get the word out that weighted blankets are more than a fad, or that they’re used as merely an excuse to stay in bed longer in the morning.

Worried about the stigma or mood-altering effects of using laughing gas (nitrous oxide)? Weighted blankets create a similar sense of well-being without masks, drugs, or that loopy feeling. Many practices have already discovered the benefits of weighted blankets, and feature this amenity on their websites as one of the ways they make dental visits easier.

Please share this link with your dental professionals, your patients, and your friends. And as always, DentalBuzz does not use affiliate links or accept ad payments, so feel free to browse the resources list and share your experiences with weighted blankets (or any good deals you discover!) in the comments below.

Resources and further reading:

Can I please wear the heavy vest: https://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2019/05/can-i-please-wear-heavy-vest.html

The Allure of the Weighted Blanket: https://www.brainfacts.org/Thinking-Sensing-and-Behaving/Sleep/2018/The-Allure-of-the-Weighted-Blanket-112918

Penn Medicine: More than just a fad: https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/health-and-wellness/2019/february/weighted-blankets

HippoHug: https://hippohug.ca/2018/12/12/anxious-at-the-dentists-office-try-a-weighted-blanket/

TruHugs Research Blog: https://blog.truhugs.com/deep-pressure-stimulation-used-during-various-dental-procedures-to-curb-anxiety-symptoms/

DentaCalm: https:/dentacalm.com

Sommerfly Wipe-Clean Relaxer: https://www.sommerfly.com/collections/wipe-clean-collection/