Not really no. It’s possible that your dentist is still open, you may have seen their lights flickering on your daily walk (trying to get those 10k steps in) but they’re not operating as usual.

Risk to Dental Staff

Check-ups, whitening, cleaning, chipped teeth, crowns and fillings, along with other regular procedures can no longer be performed at the dentist. Most dental procedures involve drilling, scaling or polishing, all of which release aerosols (tiny droplets of saliva and blood) into the air, which is how Covid-19 is spread. The risk of directly infecting dental staff or of aerosols landing on surfaces which are then touched by patients or staff is just too big. We love our dentists, we want to keep them safe, so our teeth will just have to wait.

There is help in an Emergency

If you find you have a dental emergency like acute pain, you need a tooth pulled, root canal (ouch!) call your dentist. There are certain emergency procedures that they are still able to perform. But get in touch first. They will need to know that you’re not showing any symptoms of Covid-19 before you enter their surgery and expect them to take precautions when you do.

Take extra care of our Teeth

Now, more than ever, we need to step up our dental routine. For the next few months, we have no fall back. We must all try our very, very best to avoid the chocolate. Sorry! We know it’s hard, and we’ve been reaching for the bumper packs of Starbursts too. Lets’ face it life is unbearably scary right now and we’re all trying to take comfort where we can but overdoing the sugar when there’s limited access to dentists could lead to tricky situations down the line.

The good news is if we stay on top of our oral hygiene, we should be OK. Just remember to spend time brushing twice a day for two minutes and floss once. We can all get through this together. Hopefully it won’t be long until we’re back caring about what celebrities wear on the red carpet and who gets drunk at the after party – you know, the important things.