Spike fear? Specially Equipped Dental Offices for Stopping COVID Spread

Q: Is it safe to get my teeth cleaned with the COVID spikes?

A: Firstly please tell all your friends you should have a mask on any time you are less than six feet from anyone who does not live with you. You should not be indoors at a table of 10 non-relatives without a mask on. I saw this all over Palm Beach County this past weekend. Come on people!

If you delay your preventive or necessary dental treatment you will have a hole in your wallet the size of a Buick as the delay will result in more extensive and more expensive dental work.

I you are worried or are elderly and/or medically compromised, then go to an office that is using extraoral (extra-oral) suction units. We were one of the first to install these “suckers”. (See, we can still have a sense of humor in a crisis. Remember the show M*A*S*H*?)

Extraoral suctions look like the business end of a vacuums cleaner with a clear funnel shaped attachment outside the mouth, sucking all the extra aerosol spraying out of your mouth. The aerosol is decontaminated as it goes through four layers of particle, HEPPA and UV filters. Just Google Extraoral Suction and click on “Videos”. You will find some truly compelling videos that made me and hopefully other doctors in my field to invest thousands of dollars in purchasing these awesome machines.

There are a couple of scientific studies that show 99.97% of the aerosol is removed, resulting in zero growth of microbes on petri dishes.

This will also allow your hygienist to go back to using the ultrasonic scaler in addition to hand scaling, resulting in better stain and tartar removal; the direct cause of periodontal disease and bad breath.