COVID-19
During the pandemic, Mr Tekeli worked on the frontline as a Consultant in Oral and Maxillo-Facial Surgery in the NHS continuing to treat urgent cancer, trauma and dental/facial infection patients. He had first-hand experience witnessing the strain put on the services by COVID-19. Due to his frontline experience, he decided to reorganise all the services at the dental practice according to COVID-19 pandemic precautions which would be the “New Normal” for the foreseeable future. He has been using hospital infection control algorithms in order to provide dental treatments in a safe COVID-Secure environment.
A detailed risk assessment was carried out as per the government’s guidance. The staff members are retrained and extra measures put in place for staff members including daily symptom checks.
There are also physical changes to the practice where the waiting area is refurbished with social distancing measures in place. In addition, due to the high-risk nature of dental procedures, practice hours changed with amendments to our dental chair usage policy. One of our advantages in our clinic is that we have three surgery rooms where we can adapt to the new infection control procedures for patients. The procedures will take longer as we have to ensure the utmost care is taken for the prevention of COVID-19 transmission.
COVID-19 Infection Control & PPE
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is crucially important in order to prevent any transmission during this pandemic. Owing to his frontline experience during the pandemic, Mr Tekeli decided to invest in a technologically advanced PPE system which is the most secure system also used by Imperial Healthcare in London. Especially for aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) in dentistry, an advanced PPE system is necessary. This would help our dentists to continue the treatments with the highest possible standards.
In addition, our strict infection control policy is revised and extra measures are introduced for minimising the risk of COVID-19, including special cleaning procedures of our equipment and our surgeries. Due to the additional infection control and social distancing protocols, procedures will take longer time to complete by our practitioners and specialists.
COVID-19 Post Lockdown Dental Treatments
In our clinic, simple and complex dental treatment will be carried out after the lockdown. We have advanced PPE and infection control measures to prevent transmission of COVID-19. Especially, any aerosol-generating procedure (AGP), such as dental fillings, will need to be completed in our designated AGP rooms with extra precautions taken. These will extend the time needed for the treatments.
Moreover, our recommendation is to minimise the number of attendances at the practice and complete as much of the treatment as possible in a given appointment time. Our principal and specialist, Mr Tekeli, will be providing dental extractions and immediate implant placement services after lockdown, which will reduce the number of attendances by the patients to the practice. We will provide patient finance during this period with 0% APR to help with the costs.
