dental staffing
The Texas-Based
Dental Team and COVID-19
by Haylee Davis and Audra Morris
Long before the term “COVID-19” entered our global lexicon in early 2020 and shut down dental practices
worldwide by March, dentistry and its teams of professionals were growing more complicated. The cost, from
emotional to fiscal, to ensure regulatory compliance and general safety for all in the dental practice was already
at an unprecedented high. Enter a global pandemic that rocked the way life is done across the globe – travel,
restaurants, schools, theaters, healthcare, every indoor or outdoor activity. Not one piece of our human existence
was left untouched, including the delivery of dentistry.
When Texas dental practices shut down except for medical
emergencies beginning in mid-March, opinions emerged about
whether the shutdown should have taken place. After all, dentistry
is lifesaving and we have spent our careers educating patients
that dental healthcare is not optional, certainly not
“elective.” Yet, not one of us could deny that living in a global
pandemic is unprecedented. None of the current generations of
practicing dentists or dental legislators could have recalled a
similar situation. In the end, we rallied, as we always do in dentistry
and emerged with increased safety precautions and
modalities to deliver life-giving dental care in an environment
that protected teams, patients and dentists alike.
As dental practice owners grappled with the shutdown, another
pressing topic existed: the dental practice team. Many questions
circled, chief among them – should the team be laid off? At KAD
Dental Staffing, we wrestled with the same questions. Ultimately,
once we had the comfort and security of knowing that
our team members could benefit from the CARES ACT, we felt
at peace allowing those for whom we did not have work to take
what we ultimately called the “COVID-19 Break.” Many of you
took the same steps and allowed your teams to be furloughed.
As Governor Abbott and the Texas State Board of Dental Examiners
took the steps necessary to make quality decisions about
re-opening dental practices, all of Texas dentistry stood by and
waited. While we processed the new and, at times, ever-changing
guidelines set forth in the new TSBDE rules, we did many
things: sought out appropriate PPE (no small task), purchased
air purifiers for our dental practices, created at home work
positions wherever possible, installed plastic shields in highrisk
areas of our offices, implemented training programs for
COVID-19 related safety, and on and on.
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