The Northside Dentist.

  COVID19 (Coronavirus) Procedures.

At The Northside Dentist we are taking the coronavirus very seriously and have implemented additional measures to ensure that our staff and patients’ health and safety is protected. 

In accordance with recent guidelines provided by the Australian Dental Association (ADA), the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) we have enacted new protocols detailed below. We are aware this situation is rapidly changing and if further adjustments to our practices are implemented our staff will advise you as soon as possible.

 What we are doing to mitigate risk:

We are extending appointment times to allow for extra surface cleaning between patients across the entire practice. This will also decrease the number of people in the building at any one time. This is hoped to decrease the chances of patients coming into contact with other each other. 

Patients who visit for an appointment will experience other precautions when they visit such as;

 1.    Pre-screening of patients over the phone (see tables 3 & 4) and recommending to anyone whose health changes to reschedule their appointment.

2.    Upon attending the clinic, you will be asked to disinfect your hands with alcohol hand sanitiser.

3.    The reception no longer has any magazines or toys/games to try to prevent cross contamination. 

4.    Patients will be asked to fill in a COVID 19 screening form and will be asked their vaccination status and to show a vaccination certificate upon arrival.

5.    Patients will then be seen in the surgery and advised to rinse with a pre-procedural mouthwash. This decreases any potential viral load in the saliva prior to carrying out treatment.

6. Rubber dam will be placed to decrease aerosols.

 What we are asking of you:

 Monitor your health and advise us over the phone if you are feeling unwell. We ask that you use your bank card to limit cash payments to limit cross contamination from bank notes. We also ask that you arrive in a timely manner so that we can limit the amount of people in the practice at any one time.

COVID19 (for symptoms see table 3) is still in the community with asymptomatic carriers. It is our responsibility to try minimise the risk transmission of COVID 19 to allow our health services not to be overwhelmed. Please refer to table 4 to see if you are a potential coronavirus carrier.

All Australians are all encouraged to take adequate precautions to prevent the coronavirus spread and therefore if you feel that you cannot attend your dental appointment for any reason then please call us on 9977 5890. We would like to reassure you that we are maintaining our high infection control standards and that our dental practice remains one of the most hygienic places you could be.

Thanks for your understanding, we appreciate your support during this difficult time and keep smiling and look after one another!

Also feel free to call if you have any queries or would like to discuss anything.

Niall

 

Table 3:

Symptoms of coronavirus (not pre-existing symptoms):

  • New continuous dry cough.

  • Temperature/fever.

  • Headache.

  • Sore Throat.

  • Shortness of breath.

 

Table 4:

We ask that for patients to postpone treatment if they have:

  • Been overseas in the last 7 days.

  • Have been in contact with anyone who has been overseas in the last 7 days.

  • Has been tested positive for coronavirus or is showing signs of coronavirus.

  • Has been in contact with anyone who has tested positive to coronavirus or showing symptoms of coronavirus.