> Infection Control
The Need for a Respiratory Protection Program Dental group practices must have a clear understanding of the standard and its rationale to provide a sound respiratory protection program for all employees.
By Katherine Schrubbe, RDH, BS, M.Ed, PhD Dr. Katherine Schrubbe, RDH, BS, M.Ed, PhD, is an independent compliance consultant with expertise in OSHA, dental infection control, quality assurance and risk management. She is an invited speaker for continuing education and training programs for local and national dental organizations, schools of dentistry and private dental groups. She has held positions in corporate as well as academic dentistry and continues to contribute to the scientific literature. Dr. Schrubbe can be reached at kathy@schrubbecompliance.com.
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The global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2 has had a huge impact on the dental profession regarding dental health care personnel (DHCP) safety and the safe delivery of dental care to patients. On March 16, 2020, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommended dentists nationwide postpone elective procedures for the next three weeks, stating that concentrating on emergency dental care will allow dentists to care for emergency patients and alleviate the burden that dental emergencies would place on hospital emergency departments.1 The closures went for much longer than three weeks and the recommendation that dentists restrict their practices to all but urgent and emergency care finally expired on April 30 and was not extended. At that point, the ADA stated, “oral health is an integral part of overall health and treatment of dental disease, as well as prevention, is important to help keep people healthy. The longer dental practices remain closed to preventive care and treatment for early forms of dental disease, the more likely that patients’ untreated disease will progress, increasing the complexity and cost for treatment down the road.”2
Dental practices were not only guided by ADA, but also had to follow state and local guidelines and mandates prior to reopening. However, in early to mid-May dental practices began to reopen to comprehensive procedures
Efficiency In Group Practice : ISSUE 6 • 2020
in states where government mandates began to lift. But it was not business as usual. Due to the many unknowns of the SARS-CoV-2 virus came new interim guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as well as
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