 Hello everybody, Andrea Maeski here with Dental Tutoring. So we will be talking about the corona virus and what it means for dental professionals. I'll just be putting everything together as we know it so far. So it is April the 14th today. This will probably all change in one week, but it just kind of helps to put everything together, doesn't it? So for those of you who might be watching this and you do not know me, I have been in the dental profession for about 15 years. I was a dental assistant. Actually, I was a dental receptionist first, and then I was a dental assistant. I became a dental hygienist, and then a restorative hygienist after that. I have opened up my own independent dental hygiene practice. I have a mobile practice as well, one behind me where I see patients in my own home. And I've been a tutor for dental hygiene and dental assistant students for about 14 years. So I've been in the profession for a while. I live and breathe dental. Yes, I am that person. But okay, so let's just get right to it. So the corona virus. I'm just going to state the obvious, but as of now, we are not meant to see patients unless for emergencies. So if you are a dentist, you can only see patients for emergencies. Now, there are a couple things that I did make a note of. So please, excuse me as I kind of look at my notes here. So what they basically wanted us to know is even for emergencies, you do still have to be screening patients, meaning screen them over the phone, try to do it obviously before they get into the office. I've had people ask me, so what about the front desk staff? Should they be wearing masks? Should they be wearing a full shield? What mask should they be wearing if any? So actually for the guidelines is do not have anybody at the front if you can help it, which should be fine if you're only seeing patients for true emergencies, meaning it should only be you and your dental assistant. If you can work without a dental assistant, even better. But of course, if you're doing something where you need a dental assistant for for good work, then absolutely have them there. But they have said to not have anybody at the front, meaning just less, less people, less, less, less people with the potential of getting sick. You know, you understand that, right? So they actually don't want anybody at the front. But as for our PPE, what they are saying right now is they do want us to wear those N95 masks. Those are still the utmost best ones to wear. They are now though saying that it's even better to wear a level three face mask over top of that because they want to keep the respirator part of it as clean as possible. The N95 masks are reusable. They even say up to 20 times or they could even say up to eight hours. It varies a little bit on that. But as I'm sure a lot of you have been experiencing, you know, if there's a shortage, you do what you have to do. So what they have also said is to put a face shield over top so then you can use it longer and for more patients if you obviously have to. In a hospital setting, obviously that's probably what they're doing. The N95 masks, probably a face mask over top and even a shield. But now they are also saying if you have a level three masks, if that's all you have, use that. But yes, to answer a very common question, are the N95 masks better? Yes. But what they are also saying is those masks have to be specific for you. So somebody has to come to make sure that that mask is the right fit. So they need to check you to make sure they are the right fit. If you have lost a lot of weight, if something's changed in your appearance where the mask may not fit properly, you might need a different size. So yes, the N95 masks are better, but they say you need to have the proper fit. And for men, if you have had any hair on the face, they want you to shave that off completely because it does not allow the mask to fit properly. I know but that's what they say. So and of course, you guys, they want us to be wearing those full-on disposable gowns. Yes, that is still something that they want us to wear. And what people have been asking me is, well, when we can get back to work, what do you think is going to happen? I would personally, I'll purchase a face shield. I can leave the links for you guys on the bottom. I am hoping more dental companies come up with more of these because I have tried to order some and they are sold out everywhere from what I have found. So I was able to order some from Amazon. So I'm going to keep those. And then when they get more available, then I will be ordering from an actual dental company. But how I see it is when we can start working, I want to be able to work. So if it's going to be, you can work now, but you have to have the N95 mask. You have to have a level three mask. You have to have a face shield. I want to make sure that I have all of that. So I am going to Amazon to purchase those. As I said, you guys, I will leave the links for you on the bottom. So that's what I would personally do. I would personally buy a bunch of N95 masks and make sure you have those level three masks, which nobody has right now because they are being sent to hospitals. And of course, to those emergency dental offices that are working, but something to keep in mind. Those caps to wear over our hair, they have also talked about that as well. They say that's not as much of a recommendation as everything else. But I'm going to order some of those two again. I did find some from Amazon. So talking about reusable masks, the courses I have taken have all said they're better than nothing. But they also say when you put them in the wash, their sterility, sterility, probably not saying that properly, but anyways, this is live, of the mask doesn't work as well. So they're reusable masks, but every time you wash them, are they really doing the job? They say probably not, but it's better than nothing. So I would even go ahead and maybe purchase a bunch of those two so that you can use them if you need them. And when we can get back to work, we can start to work and be as safe as possible. So those are just some basic PPEs. They are talking about reusable gowns also, which I would prefer because I don't like a lot of the waste, but I can't seem to find them anywhere. Actually, no, sorry, I did find some on Amazon. They're those hospital gowns basically, but they do cover, I did find some to cover your arms. So that is something that I do recommend as well. If you're looking to get ahead of the game and purchase something, the nice thing about Amazon is if you don't end up using it, you can take it back, but there is a time limit on that. So just keep that in mind. Let's see you guys. So that's basically what they're saying. Now, I want to give you guys a little background info. Sorry guys, I just kind of spilled something there. Just spilled my water. That's okay. This is live. Actually, guys, you know what? I'm going to pause this just to clean that up. I'll be right back. There you guys. Sorry about that. Thank you for your patience. Yes, this is live. So whatever. Okay, so I just would like to say so some people have been asking me, so this coronavirus, I know what it is, but can you like sum it all up, put it all together for me? So basically, to keep it simple, they are saying that the origin of it was actually from animals that hopped over to humans. I mean, we've all heard that story, but that is still what they're saying. But the transmission, so the main concern are the droplets. As dental professionals, we have learned all about this in our infection control classes. There are aerosols and there are droplets, but that's the main concern about the coronavirus, which is why we're on lockdown, which is why many services are cancelled. We are on lockdown because if you cough, if you sneeze, that's how these things get spread, and you could have the coronavirus and not know it. So even if you feel perfectly fine or you just kind of feel tired, you just feel under the weather a little bit, but you don't think you're, you know, it's nothing special. You go on with your regular day, you could have the coronavirus. So that is why everything is on lockdown and it can land on surfaces. So packages, food packages, our countertops, our cell phones, you know, it can land on surfaces and stay there. So I had to make a note of this. It is two to three hours airborne. That's what they're saying. And it can last to two days on most surfaces with cardboard being one day. So Amazon, our shipping box is what I have been doing if I am ordering from Amazon. I will literally keep the box inside, in the hall, but I don't touch it for two days. Yes, it says cardboard for one day, but since the Amazon person was handling it, I'm going to leave it there for a full two days, 48 hours. That's what I'm doing. I know it may sound silly, but that's what I'm doing. When you go to the grocery store, all of those packages, all of your boxes, they are actually saying to disinfect them. Now, can you really disinfect cardboard? I don't think so. So that's why I do, if there is anything in cardboard, which there really isn't, I suppose, but like boxes, like packages, I guess, leave there. Leave it there for a couple of days because the more you're touching, the more you could be exposed to it. That might seem a little bit fearful or a lot fearful, so that's up to you, but that is where the importance of washing hands come in. We all know that hand sanitizer you can use, but your hands have to be clean, okay? Not like dirty or have had anything on them, hand cream, none of that. They have to be clean. Then hand sanitizer is effective, but I prefer hand washing because in my opinion, all of those alcohol, all of the alcohol and hand sanitizer, no thank you. I prefer to not have that being absorbed in my skin, but if I am outside somewhere, going to the store or whatever, I do have my hand sanitizer with me because you can't have soap and water. So just some food for thought there. So I wanted to mention that. And another thing that I did forget to mention, sorry, but for those who are seeing patients on an emergency basis only, and this will probably happen to us too once we start working, you have to ask the patient questions, such as even if they have tested positive for the coronavirus. In my courses, it did say that if they are seven days since their positive test, and it's an emergency, you can see them because if it's a true emergency, they might not be able to wait 14 days. So if it's been seven days since their positive test, you can see them for emergencies. And since they're, if they did feel sick, but now they feel better, they are saying to wait three days since that. So if you're talking to your patient over the phone, and they say, well, I'm pretty sure I don't have the coronavirus because yes, I was sick a week ago, but I feel fine. Okay, that is fine. Even if they say that they, I was sick over the weekend like three days ago, but now I feel a lot better, you are okay to see them. So those are some things that they had mentioned. Also, they want us to start using a 1.5% hydrogen peroxide pre-rinse for one minute before we see the patient. So this works for those of you who are seeing patients as an emergency, because that will help to limit the bacterial load, and they want you to pre-rinse for one minute. I'm assuming that they will want us to do this too. Once hopefully sooner rather than later, we can start to get back to work. And a lot of people were asking me, well, where can I get like a 1.5% hydrogen peroxide solution? You can make it yourself, or listerine has the same thing. Just make sure to look on the back of the listerine to make sure that it is 1.5% hydrogen peroxide solution. What else you guys? Okay, so I talked about the masks here. Now talking about cleaning and disinfecting, so a lot of this stays the same. So this will be just more of a review, I think, for everybody. Make sure that you are packaging your cassettes. You cannot just throw in your cassettes in your statham and leave them there. You need to make sure that rack that comes with your stathams, they need to fit inside that rack. With those larger ones, obviously, you don't have those individual racks per se. But if you do have them, that means that those cassettes need to be fitting in there and make sure they are packaged with internal indicators and external indicators. Because remember, those indicators only tell us if the statham, if the sterilizer has reached a certain temperature, you also need to do a spore test. There has been talk that doing it every single load is ideal, not just once per day, and not just once per whatever. But for every single load, makes sense. In my own practice, that's what I do anyway. Because usually if I'm doing a load, it is just that one load anyway. Because I don't see like 20, 30 patients every single day. I see maybe five patients every single day. So I will do a spore test for every single load. Make sure to document, which I'm sure everybody's doing that now anyways, right? But make sure to write down the type of sterilizer, that the temperature that it has reached, obviously if it's past or not, which it has, right? The type of indicators you have used exactly what was in that load, meaning three cassettes and four pouches of instruments or three cassettes and four pouches of hand mirrors, you know, whatever. Write that down and initial and make sure to write down the time and the date on your, on that paper, when it goes in and when it comes out. On your pouches, initial, you want to write the date and the load number. If you have more than one sterilizer, make sure to write down the type of sterilizer. Because if something doesn't pass, you need to know how and why and what happened. If it doesn't pass, I do have another video on that that I can talk about for you. But it's not as simple as saying, okay, well, let's just try it again. Okay, there will be steps to follow. And of course, in your lab area, make sure to have a dirty area and a clean area so that you can keep everything separate. After a procedure, you can't just let the instruments sit there. They say to pre-silcum to make sure to get everything off. To manually clean the instruments. They don't like that, but it's still allowed to do just, of course, where you're full PPE. Because if you're, you're, you know, cleaning the instruments and all that stuff is coming up, well, that's not a very good idea, is it? So they will probably start saying that everybody should pre-soak the instruments. Everybody should have an ultrasonic. I'm just guessing that that's what they will happen. Close that lid of the ultrasonic. Please and thank you. Do not forget that, because then all of that is coming up into the air, airborne. That's dirty right there. And of course, you guys practice standard precautions. We have been doing this since day one. It's what we have to do. Some of the questions that I have been getting have been, well, back in the 1980s, they didn't wear masks, they didn't wear PPE, everybody was fine. Why is everybody going crazy now? Because we have learned a lot more now. We will not be going back to those days, thankfully, where we didn't wear masks, gloves, any of that. And that will never happen again. Because look, I think our world has changed. PPE has changed. Patients know now all about it. We are more conscious of it. Make sure that everything is perfect. Make sure that everything fits. Another question is, if you wear loops, what to do? So I do. So what I plan to do is to wear my loops and then a shield over top. So you would have to find one that fits over top of your loops. I can't live without them because it just helps me see so much better. Plus, I do have a light at the end, too. So that's just something that I do need. Somebody was actually a few people were asking me here for, are they going to allow us to wear lab coats? So I actually have one where it's a full length sleeve, just because I like to be covered. I do feel that that is something that they will want us to do. A disposable gown, they obviously just cover more. So that's why they want us to wear that now, opposed to just a lab coat. But if you were going to go that way, I'm thinking that they would want you to have a new one for every patient. They will no longer want us to be wearing our uniform to work. I'm guessing they will want us to go to work and then change into everything there and then probably launder everything there, too. Or at least put everything in a sealed tight plastic bag, perhaps, and then throw it in the laundry as soon as we get home. They will probably want us to shower as soon as we get home. I have a feeling like things will definitely change. As a mobile dental hygienist, I can see things being very, very difficult because I can't just change when I get to a patient's house or maybe that's what I'll have to do. We will see what happens there. But all of that, I would say, has been the same, but just amplified. So we'll just have to do so much more. Patients will be asking us questions. If you guys have any concerns, any questions, please let me know. I do hope that that helped to bring everything together. Make sure to comment below, though. If I did miss something, if I was it clear, I am more than happy to help. Things will probably change next week, but at least this helps to kind of put it all together what you should be doing now and what to probably expect for when we can finally get back to work. I'm sure we're all excited about that. I know I am. So thank you guys so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching, and I will talk to everybody very, very soon.