One top Bromsgrove dental surgery has reached out to its patients, to roll out a full suite of resources offering expert advice on how to look can after their teeth at home. As regular check-ups have been off the table during this year’s lockdowns, the team at New Road Dental Practice is concerned that people are ignoring issues because they are wary of visiting their local dentist.
In a bid to empower clients, the team is encouraging clients to take control of their dental hygiene at home, steadily launching its own online library of resources – from helpful how-to’s and articles, through to dentist-led demonstration videos – so that its patients still get the expert advice they’re used to while they wait for their appointments.
Led by the experts that patients will know and recognise from the surgery, Director of New Road Dental Practice, Dr. Ravi Solanki, hopes that these materials will help them feel confident in taking care of their teeth themselves.
While it may seem perverse to advise patients to stay home when the practice is open again, New Road Dental Practice explains that it is left with no choice, as capacity is reduced to make sure the new COVID-19 guidelines can be adhered to: this involves having reduced staff numbers in practice, more rigorous check-in processes, and staggered appointment times to minimise customer contact in waiting rooms.
Dr. Ravi explains:
“Like all dental surgeries we have to follow new rules to ensure we remain COVID-19 safe and therefore we are only able to see around 30-40% of the patients we would normally, despite operating for the same number of hours. This means we can’t see as many patients as we would like to, and have to prioritise them in terms of pain and emergency. While we are advising them to stay at home where they can, so we are then able to provide essential treatment to those patients that need it most, we are also impressing on them some simple tips that they can do themselves.”
Keen to ensure that the number of emergency dental appointments are kept to a minimum, both for patient wellbeing and the ease strain on the appointment books, Dr. Ravi and the New Road Dental Practice team are advising patients that looking after oral hygiene should not take a back seat. With in-depth guidelines and links to suitable NHS and online videos offered on its website already, as well as at-home care kits and cleaning advice provided by the surgery, New Road Dental Practice hopes they can help patients remotely.
“It’s understandable that many of clients are wary about getting back to normal, however it is important that we send out the message that they shouldn’t ignore the warning signs that something is wrong.
“We want our patients to know that if they are suffering symptoms of toothache they can still get in touch with us so we can help. We have seen a rise in cases that have become too advanced for us to fix and these act as a warning sign that during the pandemic it’s vital that we prioritise oral health the same way we do physical and mental health,” concluded Dr. Ravi.
