Good morning Team Absolute & Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Events and new information continues to evolve rapidly as you know.  Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the Nevada Dental Board (NDB) announced yesterday afternoon and then we listened in on an emergency NDB meeting as they worked to publish their recommendation.  In broad strokes, their recommendation is:

1. Elective treatment be postponed for 2 weeks (ADA recommended 3 weeks)
2. Treating providers make the determination of the definition of elective
3. Patients wait in their cars to reduce the number of people together
4. Dental providers do their part in social responsibility to reduce virus spread

In addition, Bibi Mosquera, Hygiene Director has reviewed further recommendations and the following:

1. Discontinue use of Cavitrons. The use of Hand Scalers is the option if possible.
2. All visitors to your office should be actively assessed for fever and symptoms upon entry to your office. If fever or respiratory symptom are present, the visitor should not be allowed entry into the facility. Thermometers have already been ordered and added to Henry Schein catalog.
3. Inform all patients to come alone; not to bring a friend, relative or companion unless the patient is a minor and the parent/guardian is accompanying that minor or if the patient needs assistance with travel and mobility.

We as a company are visiting the ADA and NDB websites regularly throughout the day.  Keep in mind, data is changing rapidly so we want to give unbiased and accurate scientific information.

In addition, you likely saw that we announced Emergency Tele-Dentistry yesterday. Please suggest this service to your patients for virtual emergency consults by calling 702-744-8009 or visiting https://www.absolutedental.com/dental-services/las-vegas/dental-emergencies/.  This is a perfect way to still have patients access the emergency care that they need without the risk of virus spread over the next 14 days.

We acknowledge that moving to an “emergency only” model per the recommendation of the ADA and NDB during the next 2 weeks will create a reduction in patient volumes that will translate into a reduced need for Team Members and providers.  Please know that we are working to understand how this might look and how we will respond.  We are all in this together and will work together to solve for. Finally, we’ve added a list of Frequency Asked Questions (FAQs) to the Team Members page.

Please continue to provide safe dental care to your emergency patients and keep yourself, staff, and family safe.  We will talk again soon!