• Patient and Staff Safety

    It is always important to ensure a safe working environment for your patients, your staff and yourself. Here you can get valuable hints to help protect against COVID-19.

    Win against COVID-19

Know your patient

The Corona virus doesn’t stop at the front door of your dental office and therefore your daily work routine is affected as well. The current universal goal is to postpone all unnecessary treatments like prophylaxes etc. Still you might come to a situation in which you have to decide if a treatment is necessary and moreover if the patient could be infected with COVID-19. To help you evaluate these circumstances we have prepared a targeted telescreening sheet which you can download for free under the following link:

Date Description Filesize
30.04.2020 Telescreening for Patients 2.20 MB

Protect yourself, staff and your patients

Office Statement

This poster for download explains your patients that you use OPTIM 1 surface disinfectant to clean and disinfect your treatment areas between the patients. It is proven effective against viruses much tougher than Coronavirus (COVID-19). Read more:

Waiting area and reception

It is always important to ensure a safe working environment for your staff, your patients and yourself. But how can this be achieved? The document below might help you with easy tips on how to keep your staff and patients as safe as possible during COVID-19.

Date Description Filesize
30.04.2020 Keep safe during COVID-19 2.22 MB

Treatment Area

If a treatment is very urgent and cannot be postponed make sure to figure out if a COVID-19 infected or suspected patient is involved (see our telescreening sheet). If this is the case you will need to take special safety measures and procedures to protect yourself, staff and the patient. Moreover, pay attention to wear the correct PPE! Here you can find a summary.

Step 1

Dentist gets prepared in isolation room. PPE:

  1. protective eyewear with side protectors/visor
  2. respirator (FFP2/3)
  3. headgear and shoe covers
  4. hygienic hand disinfection
  5. long-sleeved liquid-repellent protective gown with cuffs and to be closed in the back    
  6. disposable gloves
     

Step 2

Dental assistant is in the waiting area to escort patient to isolation room. PPE:

  1. protective eyewear with side protectors/visor
  2. respirator (FFP2/3)
  3. hygienic hand disinfection
  4. long-sleeved liquid-repellent protective gown with cuffs and to be closed in the back
  5. disposable gloves

Step 3

Dental assistant has come to isolation room. PPE:

  1. change and dispose of gloves

add following PPE:

  1. headgear and shoe covers
  2. hygienic hand disinfection
  3. disposable gloves
     

Step 4

Final disinfection - dental assistant is in the dental office before disinfecting isolation room. PPE:

  1. hygienic hand disinfection
  2. protective gloves according DIN EN 374 with long cuffs

Dealing with aerosols

As the COVID-19 virus is known to be transmitted via aerosols as well you should generally try to avoid aerosol formation during the treatment and take protective measures. The following gives a summary of recommendations on this:

  • avoid aerosols

    • do not use ultrasound instruments/turbine
    • low-speed working
    • use high-volume suction

  • use multifunctional syringes without air-water-spray (only air or water)
  • use a dental dam
  • before treatment: oral antisepsis (H2O2 (1,5 %) or similar, 30 ml for 30 sec.)

Dental dam isolation significantly reduces airborne particles

Recent studies show that dental dam is an important measure to prevent virus transmission. Rubber dam isolation can significantly reduce airborne particles and minimize the production of saliva- and blood-contaminated aerosol or spatter.

Date Description Filesize
30.04.2020 Subline Transmission routes of 2019-nCoV and controls in dental practice 175.80 KB