Welcome Back!
As you will have no doubt heard by now, we are lucky enough to have had the previous ADA Level Three restrictions to dental services eased back earlier last month, allowing us to be more available for our patients’ needs.
Following this news, Prime Minister Scott Morrison also advised that there will be some relaxations to the social distancing rules for our region. Now, this is very encouraging news, but we all must still remain vigilant of the potential risks, and continue to follow the advised social distancing and safety measures still in place to protect our community from future risks of the coronavirus.
However, as we go about adjusting to more (positive) changes once again, we at My Family Dental Qld just wanted to say that as a health care provider, and small business owner, we must commend our community on how well we managed and responded to this unprecedented event, which has resulted in local businesses like ours to be able to reopen earlier than we expected and return to providing vital services to our patients.
Our teams across regional Queensland have been overwhelmed by the gratitude shown towards them by you, our patients, for remaining available to support you over the last few months. We are truly blessed to be part of such amazing communities!
So you might be wondering – what now? What do these ‘relaxations to restrictions’ actually mean? Is it now safe to visit the dentist?
Firstly, we want you to know that we are still maintaining the high level of infection control and sanitation measures and standards that were implemented in the initial response to the coronavirus threat, which will continue to provide you with a safe environment when you attend your appointment.
You may not be aware, but Australian dental practitioners have some of the highest infection control standards in the world, and the safety of our patients and teams is a cornerstone of Australian dental practice. (www.ada.org.au). It is these foundations that have allowed us to provide reliable and safe emergency treatments during the pandemic.
Moving into lower levels of restrictions and the relaxation of social distancing laws means that we are now available to treat a broader scope of general dental issues, in addition to emergency care, following the appropriate precautions.
As always though, especially during constantly changing times like we are currently experiencing, it is best to contact us directly to discuss your dental concerns. Once we know more details about your situation, we can then advise how to best support you and your dental health needs.
As we continue to experience further changes across our communities, we want you to know that we are as committed as ever to providing the same warmth and care that you’ve always experienced from our teams. And, for those of you whose appointments were postponed due to the temporary restrictions to services, we would like to thank you for your patience, and we will be in touch shortly, (if we haven’t already), to reschedule your treatment.
What to Expect During Your First Post-COVID19 Visit?
So, how did you spend your “iso”? A phrase now commonly heard among friends, family, and colleagues as the COVID-19 social distancing restrictions are eased back, and the community returns to normal daily life, albeit warily.
We hope that all of you stayed healthy and safe during the height of the pandemic, and continue to stay safe as the nation and our local communities start the rocky process of returning to pre-covid19 operations.
With the most recent announcements from the Australian government advising the careful and strategic easing of social distancing, isolation and business service restrictions, we, as health care providers, are eager to return to providing our patients with important dental health services, but with a fervor that fervour that goes beyond the ‘routine scale and clean’…
You see, in the latest Australian Adult Oral Health Tracker, released on March 3, 2020, the Australian Dental Association (ADA) discovered that only 53% of Australian adults (18+) brush their teeth twice a day! (www.ada.org.au/oralhealthtracker)
Those are pre–pandemic, pre-isolation statistics!
Throw in a global health crisis, law-enforced social-distancing, and daily routines shattered into disarray, and one can only imagine how much further our at-home oral care routines might have suffered during this period.
Social distancing laws provided a myriad of excuses to sleep in longer, stay at home, reduce visitors, skip a workout or two, and change dietary habits to include more cuisine of the ‘delivered’ nature. (I mean, who isn’t on a first-name basis with their Uber Eats driver by now?)
Brushing teeth is an activity all too easily forgotten amongst the distractions of adjusting to working, studying, and ‘living’ at home for many families, re-enforced by the fact you knew you weren’t going to be going out, or receiving any surprise visitors, so… You could always do it later, right?
Be honest, approximately what time did you get around to brushing your/your kids’ teeth each day while trying to manage a new at-home workload and home-schooling? If at all?
We are your dentists. We get it. Our powers of perception see right through those feeble attempts to mask the occasional smoking habit by chewing gum before your visit; We know when you are being ‘creative’ when asked about your brushing routine; And don’t even get me started on Flossing. The once-serious and still very necessary activity used to support oral hygiene has been long forgotten since the Great Floss Dance Challenge of 2016. (https://youtube/8z1ivoNN4T4).
So as we make preparations to re-open our practices and return to providing routine treatments and important dental care, we ask ourselves: What are we, your dentists, to expect from our patient’s initial post-isolation dental visit?
And while we ponder what we will find among those hard-to-reach molars, riiiiiight at the back, we also hope that you – our highly valued and loved patients – know that you can trust us, with your ‘secret bad dental habits’, to provide a safe and caring environment, and to support you to return to or achieve optimum oral health, no matter how far out of the routine you may have fallen since we last saw you.
What happened in self-isolation, stays in self-isolation.
Sincerely,
Your Team at
