Working Together: The Dental Team in a COVID-19 World
A message from the ADA President:
It’s been nearly seven weeks since I last entered the Queens, New York, dental practice I share with my wife Rekha, who is an orthodontist.
Although the statewide stay-at-home order has us sheltering in place miles away on Long Island, social distance has not meant disconnection between us and our team. Our entire staff—including our office manager, assistants, and hygienists—meets virtually to talk through our concerns about the COVID-19 crisis and how it will change the way we work in the future.
I believe that a dental practice is not a building; it is a team of professionals who work to improve the health and wellbeing of a community. Our building has been closed for seven weeks, but our practice has been up and running, albeit in a much different way. We are reviewing the ADA’s interim guidance for returning to work and designing a strategy for protecting our patients and ourselves when we go back to work full-time.
As I write this, New York has no immediate plans to lift its stay-at-home order, and it’s unclear when our lives will go back to “normal.” Normal is a bit of a misnomer—things will never again be as they were. COVID-19 has laid upon us a distinct “before” and “after.” Practicing dentistry in the “after” will require a renewed sense of teamwork, and we’re making sure that our team is prepared.
If you’ve followed the American Dental Association’s activities in the last few weeks, you know that we’ve been looking ahead to post-pandemic recovery for dental practices. On April 27, we issued an evidence-based Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit, designed to help dentists prudently re-enter practice as many U.S. states begin to reopen in the coming days.
Everyone’s safety matters, and minimizing the risk of disease transmission and keeping everyone protected is of utmost importance. Yet, there is another key component for navigating this new world: Communicating with your staff.
I encourage you to connect with your team members now—via conference call or group video chat—to see if they have concerns about returning to work. Dentists should be forthcoming with the facts and honest about what is speculation. Explain what will need to be done differently moving forward, share the toolkit with them, and adopt an action plan that includes a soft launch where your whole office practices these new routines before reopening fully.
Next week, the ADA will host an online event that provides an overview of the Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit. I encourage you to watch the webinar with your staff, then discuss next steps. The conversations you have now can make all the difference.
As our profession emerges from crisis and enters a new world, every member of a dental practice will play an important role. Now is the time to prepare your team for what comes next.
It’s been nearly seven weeks since I last entered the Queens, New York, dental practice I share with my wife Rekha, who is an orthodontist.
Although the statewide stay-at-home order has us sheltering in place miles away on Long Island, social distance has not meant disconnection between us and our team. Our entire staff—including our office manager, assistants, and hygienists—meets virtually to talk through our concerns about the COVID-19 crisis and how it will change the way we work in the future.
I believe that a dental practice is not a building; it is a team of professionals who work to improve the health and wellbeing of a community. Our building has been closed for seven weeks, but our practice has been up and running, albeit in a much different way. We are reviewing the ADA’s interim guidance for returning to work and designing a strategy for protecting our patients and ourselves when we go back to work full-time.
As I write this, New York has no immediate plans to lift its stay-at-home order, and it’s unclear when our lives will go back to “normal.” Normal is a bit of a misnomer—things will never again be as they were. COVID-19 has laid upon us a distinct “before” and “after.” Practicing dentistry in the “after” will require a renewed sense of teamwork, and we’re making sure that our team is prepared.
If you’ve followed the American Dental Association’s activities in the last few weeks, you know that we’ve been looking ahead to post-pandemic recovery for dental practices. On April 27, we issued an evidence-based Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit, designed to help dentists prudently re-enter practice as many U.S. states begin to reopen in the coming days.
Everyone’s safety matters, and minimizing the risk of disease transmission and keeping everyone protected is of utmost importance. Yet, there is another key component for navigating this new world: Communicating with your staff.
I encourage you to connect with your team members now—via conference call or group video chat—to see if they have concerns about returning to work. Dentists should be forthcoming with the facts and honest about what is speculation. Explain what will need to be done differently moving forward, share the toolkit with them, and adopt an action plan that includes a soft launch where your whole office practices these new routines before reopening fully.
Next week, the ADA will host an online event that provides an overview of the Return to Work Interim Guidance Toolkit. I encourage you to watch the webinar with your staff, then discuss next steps. The conversations you have now can make all the difference.
As our profession emerges from crisis and enters a new world, every member of a dental practice will play an important role. Now is the time to prepare your team for what comes next.
