Coronavirus

Should I go to the dentist during coronavirus?

By Adella Miesner 4 days ago

Dental practices are adapting how they work in and around a patient’s mouth to account for this complicated reality. Dentists are screening patients for symptoms, limiting the number of appointments in a day, implementing stringent sanitation protocols and wearing more protective equipment to guard against the respiratory disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization suggest that respiratory droplets expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes, talks or breathes are the primary way the virus spreads. But the CDC reports there’s “no data available to assess the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission during dental practice.”

The Washington Post has been fielding thousands of reader questions about life during the coronavirus pandemic and many have asked whether they should go to upcoming dentist appointments. Dentists and public-health experts are concerned that Americans are putting off routine cleanings, which could compound health issues in the months or years

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Is It Safe To Go Back To The Dentist Despite Surging Coronavirus Cases? : Shots

By Adella Miesner 4 weeks ago

Dental offices have begun seeing patients return for routine procedures. Seattle dentist Kathleen Saturay has increased the layers of protective equipment she wears when treating patients.

Elaine Thompson/AP


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Elaine Thompson/AP

Dental offices have begun seeing patients return for routine procedures. Seattle dentist Kathleen Saturay has increased the layers of protective equipment she wears when treating patients.

Elaine Thompson/AP

Add dental visits to the list of services you can book now or shortly as cities, counties and states continue to modify their months-long stay-at-home orders aimed at reducing COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Dental offices were largely shuttered across the United States after being advised in March by the American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to close their practices to all but emergency care. Many closed entirely.

The hope was that by allowing dentists to continue to treat serious cases — such as

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Is It Safe To Go Back To The Dentist, Despite Surging Coronavirus Cases? : Shots

By Adella Miesner 4 weeks ago

Dental offices have begun seeing patients return for routine procedures, and are working under updated CDC guidance regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Seattle dentist Kathleen Saturay has increased the layers of PPE she wears when treating patients, among other precautions.

Elaine Thompson/AP


hide caption

toggle caption

Elaine Thompson/AP

Dental offices have begun seeing patients return for routine procedures, and are working under updated CDC guidance regarding the coronavirus pandemic. Seattle dentist Kathleen Saturay has increased the layers of PPE she wears when treating patients, among other precautions.

Elaine Thompson/AP

Add dental visits to the list of services you can book now or shortly, as cities, counties and states continue to modify their months-long stay at home orders aimed at reducing COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Dental offices were largely shuttered across the United States after being advised in March by the American Dental Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

… Read More

Is It Safe to Go to the Dentist During the Coronavirus Pandemic?

By Adella Miesner 2 months ago

Nearly all dentists and oral surgeons stopped seeing patients at the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic in March; more than 90% of offices closed, canceling or postponing non-essential dental procedures in the process. Dentists have had concerns about spreading SARS-CoV-2, the respiratory illness that leads to a COVID-19 diagnosis, as they directly work over patients in chairs. Dentists in particular often create vaporized aerosols as they work in patient’s mouths, and infectious droplets like these can quickly spread throughout enclosed spaces like an operating room. But nearly three months later, dentists in all 50 states are in the process of reopening their offices — according to the American Dental Association (ADA) — to resume scheduled treatments for their patients.

Going to the dentist will feel vastly different than it has in the past, with new rules aimed at preventing those who may be unknowingly sick from spreading SARS to

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Coronavirus rules for reopening California gyms coming soon

By Adella Miesner 2 months ago

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said his administration will release guidelines “in a week or so” for allowing gyms, yoga studios and other fitness facilities to reopen, though stringent safeguards will need to be adopted to protect customers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Newsom cautioned that the state directives will be tailored to the unique characteristics of each business, from large fitness chains to small studios, and will rely heavily on the advice of public health officials in each county.

The governor made the comments during an online roundtable with fitness professionals and business owners Wednesday morning, saying he hopes to allow them to be back in business as soon as possible.

“We also recognize your sector is multifaceted and we don’t want to be naive and just put out something that’s bland and that doesn’t meet your unique criteria and your unique considerations,” Newsom said.

The news comes as Dr.

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How coronavirus will change your dentist appointment

By Adella Miesner 2 months ago

Surgical masks are replaced with N-95 respirators, the dental drill is silent, and waiting-room magazines are gone. Your next trip to the dentist may be much different from what you’re used to.

Four decades after the AIDS epidemic changed dentistry, requiring providers to wear gloves and goggles for the first time, the novel coronavirus is challenging the industry again to step up its sanitizing standards as patients begin to return for routine care amid a global pandemic.

“Dentists are really great at infection control and being prepared to create safety,” said California Dental Assn. President Richard Nagy, a periodontist in Santa Barbara. “That’s what we’re good at, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Although the Occupational Safety and Health Administration deems dentistry “very high risk” for coronavirus transmission, there have been no COVID-19 clusters linked to dental settings or among dental healthcare professionals, according to the CDC. But in March as

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Coronavirus in Pennsylvania

By Adella Miesner 2 months ago

The Latest Guidance

The following counties will move to the yellow phase on May 29:
Dauphin, Franklin, Huntingdon, Lebanon, Luzerne, Monroe, Pike, and
Schuylkill. 17 counties will move to green on May 29: Bradford, Cameron, Clarion, Clearfield, Crawford, Elk, Forest, Jefferson, Lawrence, McKean, Montour, Potter, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, Venango and Warren.


Counties currently in yellow include: Adams, Allegheny, Armstrong, Beaver Bedford, Blair, Bradford, Butler, Cambria, Cameron, Carbon, Centre, Clarion, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Crawford, Cumberland, Elk, Erie, Fayette, Forest, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lawrence, Lycoming, McKean, Mercer, Mifflin, Montour, Northumberland, Perry, Potter, Snyder, Somerset, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Venango, Warren, Washington, Westmoreland, Wyoming, Wayne, and York.

Pennsylvania is utilizing a three-phase matrix to determine when counties and/or regions are ready to begin easing some restrictions on work, congregate settings, and social interactions. View Governor’s Wolf’s
phased reopening plan for Pennsylvania. View
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How dentists are handling the coronavirus.

By Adella Miesner 2 months ago

Two dentist chairs, kept at a distance.

Photo illustration by Slate. Images via AlexLMX/iStock/Getty Images Plus.

This article is part of Reopenings, a series about how businesses are operating during the pandemic.

Fillings, extractions, and cleanings are no longer relics of the Before Times. Dental practices in more than half the United States are reopening for business. But as one of the professions most susceptible to an illness that mainly spreads from one breather to the next, dentists have to rethink many of their practices in order to function during the coronavirus pandemic. Book an appointment now and you’ll immediately see the difference—if you can get one. “We’ve delayed treatments, which could lead to an emergency, so there’s a huge backlog of patients who need to be seen,” said Richard Nagy, a periodontist in Santa Barbara and the president of the California Dental Association. “Protocols will be different. Patients will be asked questions that they’ve never

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Washington ER doctor loses job after criticizing hospital’s coronavirus response

By Adella Miesner 3 months ago

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A Washington state emergency room doctor has been fired after going on Facebook and TV and publicly accusing the hospital where he worked of a slow response to the coronavirus that exposed staff to danger.

Ming Lin showed up for work at PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center on Friday and was told he had been terminated before the start of his shift, The Seattle Times reported.

“I got a message that said, ‘Your shift has been covered,’” Lin told the paper.

The hospital employed Lin for 17 years under a contract with TeamHealth, a national health care staffing company.

CORONAVIRUS: 2 US EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTORS IN CRITICAL CONDITION FROM VIRUS

TeamHealth told The Associated Press in an email Saturday that it would try and find Lin a job somewhere else. The company

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California doctors’ dubious coronavirus claims condemned by health experts

By Adella Miesner 3 months ago

A widely shared local television video of last week’s news conference, which was posted on YouTube, reached more than 5 million views and was amplified by Elon Musk and Fox News, where Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi appeared on primetime shows two nights in a row.

The video has since been taken down by YouTube for violating the platform’s policy on misinformation, a YouTube spokesperson said.

The doctors, who are not epidemiologists and who own and operate urgent care centers in the Bakersfield area, held the news conference on April 22 to share their conclusions about the results of 5,213 coronavirus tests at their clinics, extrapolating their findings to the California population as a whole.

“Do we need to still shelter in place? Our answer is emphatically no. Do we need businesses to be shut down? Emphatically no. Do we need to test them and get them back … Read More