“Yes Ma’am Can I Have Another?

Passive Dentist Professional’s Attitude Towards COVID-Closure

The Impact of Coronavirus on Dentists

The novel coronavirus has infected millions of people across the globe and this pandemic has left all dentistry practice around the world go for a toss.

Only a few states have allowed dental offices to be kept open due to the social distancing limitations and rest all are shutdown. However, the dental association is just accepting this fate and not advocating their businesses or is bothered about their patients.

Supporting the SDC Model

The SDC business model is a model where a patient can make a bite cast or impression of his teeth at home or in SDC’s retail locations. This cast is then used by a professional to start a treatment plan.

However, in Georgia and Alabama, this was opposed by the dental association and state boards of dentistry. They all claimed that such casts should not be made at home and a licensed professional needs to be monitoring the activity. So the point here is, Virtual Treatments and work from home attitude are like justifying and supporting this unethical SDC/Candid business model.

Why are other departments still open for business?

Though most of the orthodontic doctors are shut for business a lot of other businesses are up and running. Who gets to decide the definition of “essential workers?” Chiropractors, physicians, and other health care departments are all allowed to work. Pharmaceutical companies, blood banks, community health workers are all up and running. Some financial services and IT departments are also running. In fact in Georgia people can book a salon treatment but cannot get their cavity filled?

What are the problems related to Virtual Dentistry?

There are multiple problems of doing blind virtual treatments based on guesswork. Kids, women, old patients cannot be just be checked visually through a skype or video call. We need to have Xrays and proper clinical examinations to not damage any teeth or cause any other health issues.

Months of treatment without proper checkup is unethical and can cause severe damage to the patients.

What should we do about this?

Dental professionals must start advocating proper practice and fight this virtual work culture. If that is not done then lawsuits from patients claiming patient abandonment and bad treatments may get filed. It is important to share this blog and reach out to your governor, dentist associations, and president.