Dentaltown November 2020 - 46

office
visit

experts. In fact, one of our pediatric patients
was diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus (BE)
as a result of our findings. When you see
the signs of acids in an adult patient, they
often have the potentially precancerous
BE condition. And, sadly, it is becoming
more common in adolescents. So often,
these findings are as a result of the largely
asymptomatic laryngopharyngeal reflux,
also known as "silent reflux."
We share our findings with our patient,
largely utilizing the photographs that we
obtained at the visit's onset. We also make
very specific product recommendations
as we go over individualized home care
instructions. Most often, our treatment plans
are multidisciplinary, so we have specialty
offices that we work very closely with.

Your practice has a very specific
layout and a distinct workflow.
How have new COVID-19 protocols
affected this?
It has been a little sad to take away some
of the things we so recently designed in our
practice. We love that our patients enjoyed
just hanging out in our office: They came in
just to sit on the couch. They liked to look
through the photobooks of our remodel and
the book that shows all of the Scripture and
quotes that friends sent during our remodel
that's written in the walls on the studs. They
came in to have a coffee.
All of those things are now removed. The
furniture is six feet apart, including a glass
table that used to display a large Pewabic
Pottery bowl that my team gave me. The
table has been moved near the entrance
where we take our patients' temperatures.
Several patients travel an hour to two
hours each way and it seems weird to have
them wait in their cars instead of inviting
them in to relax.

46

Despite many people spending time
on their phones in the reception area, we
provided current and well-kept magazines
that we have now removed. The front counter
has sneeze guards (designed by my father)
that definitely were not a part of the front
desk I designed. Luckily, my dad-age 80 at
the time of our remodel-did the finish work
and still had the stain that I custom-tinted for
the other woodwork. It blends perfectly and
looks relatively intentional. He optimistically
made it so that it could easily be removed
in the future.
I do love the Medify Air MA-40 air
purifiers that I added because of COVID-19;
they help overcome the difficulty of wearing
two masks (respirator and surgical) and a
face shield. I wish that I had known about
them earlier, but I hate adding stuff to sit
on the treatment room floor. I had a lot of
that in my old office and it felt so good to
get away from that in my new one. For the
HVAC system we have added Reme Halo
in-duct air purifiers.
By and large, digital dentistry is much

cleaner. We don't have impressions that we
have to decontaminate and send from place
to place. We don't have to move around the
office a lot because we can access information from virtually any workstation. One
advantage we have with reopening is that
we have always been a low-volume office.
Our COVID-19 protocol includes me doing
very few hygiene exams (which is so nice for
me!) as we attempt to not move in and out of
treatment rooms during aerosol-generating
procedures. I trust my hygienist and she
can radio my assistant with our Black
Diamond radios if she has any questions.
She gathers photos, radiographs, probings
and descriptions of any areas of concern
and I evaluate those at my convenience
after the hygiene patient leaves and we use
a teledentistry code for the exam.
Because I tend to do quite long appointments, I was worried that after more than
two months away, I would not be able to
jump back in, but it has been surprisingly
normal for me. It is harder on my team to
deal with the respirator/surgical mask/face

NOVEMBER 2020 // dentaltown.com

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Dentaltown November 2020

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