FEATURES
Moving Forward in a Pandemic
Brandonn Perry
M Dentistry magazine reported in the spring/summer online edition about how the arrival of the pandemic in March was met with fast action, long hours and creative solutions that kept students engaged in online learning and patients receiving emergency treatment. Over the last eight months, students and patients have returned to the school, though the daily routines are still far from the previous norms. M Dentistry asked six people with widely varying jobs – and with half a year of hindsight – to briefly reflect on how the school has kept moving forward.
Brandonn Perry: Safety first As Infection Prevention and Compliance Officer at the dental school, Brandonn Perry was accustomed to developing, communicating and enforcing infection control procedures. But the challenge in the first days of the pandemic was that no one – not even state and national health agencies – knew how to best defend against this new coronavirus for the general public, let alone a dental school.
including six he met with weekly; and the U-M health system, including its Occupational Health Services. Perry navigated through countless online bulletins, advisories and webinars from state and national health agencies, including the Organization for Safety Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP), an industry group that advocates for the safe and infection-free delivery of oral healthcare.
Perry and school leadership had to immediately take steps that would keep students, faculty, staff and patients safe so that solving myriad other problems could go forward. Perry worked with the school’s COVID-19 Response Group that was quickly formed, as well as the existing Infection Prevention and Safety Committee he chairs. He joined a constant stream of meetings – daily, weekly, impromptu – with administrators, faculty, department chairs and staff leaders of various offices whenever input and consensus was needed.
“In the beginning, there was little scientific evidence on anything for COVID-19 because it was new, so you were just going off of best guesses and what seemed about right,” Perry said. “And you may err on the side of being too strict because we need to stay safe. And sometimes, people thought, ‘Well, this is ridiculous.’ And it may be, but we’ll just see how it goes and we may be able to make an adjustment if necessary.”
He constantly monitored outside sources, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Michigan Department of Health; the U-M Environmental Health and Safety Department; state and federal occupational safety and health agencies; other dental schools,
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FEATURES M Dentistry | Fall 2020
“Dentists had never worn N95 masks and typically face shields or surgical gowns were not required. So we had to figure out what was reasonable.” The strictest Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) requirement was implemented for faculty and students treating patients with high-speed instruments that generate airborne particles.
