A Sense of Urgency
On the Front Lines:
UMB Champions of Excellence:
School of Dentistry Emergency Oral Health Care Team
The highly transmissible nature of COVID-19 poses a challenge for health care professionals who must treat patients while maintaining safety protocols to limit the risk of exposure. The potential for airborne transmission is high, so the challenge is even greater for clinicians who work in proximity to a patient鈥檚 mouth.
The 网红爆料 School of Dentistry (UMSOD) faced this obstacle when the pandemic unfolded in March 2020 and routine oral care services were halted. A team was assembled and tasked with quickly turning the school鈥檚 integrated oral health care clinic into a site for emergency-only dental care.
鈥淲e sat down and figured: OK, this is an aerosol problem, right? This is an airborne virus,鈥� said Robert Windsor, DDS, director of clinical operations at UMSOD. 鈥淒entistry creates an aerosol, we have a lot of water spray, and we鈥檙e only 12 to 14 inches away from the patient. So we had to limit our procedures to true emergencies.
鈥淭he American Dental Association defined what a true dental emergency was, then we had to figure out how to treat those emergencies. So we talked about bleeding, swelling, or an actual trauma injury 鈥� those are the types of things we had to equip ourselves for and develop a process to handle.鈥�
Among the safety protocols, patients were screened for symptoms before entering the building and required to wear face coverings except during procedures, and dental care providers wore personal protection equipment that included gown, gloves, a fit-tested N-95 mask or equivalent, face shield, and head cover when treating patients.
Working with UMSOD鈥檚 urgent care/oral and maxillofacial surgery clinicians, the team ensured the availability of emergency treatment for patients of record, walk-ins, and referrals from regional hospitals into June. Nearly 40 patients a day were treated for conditions including uncontrolled bleeding, diffuse soft tissue bacterial infections, and trauma that could potentially compromise a patient鈥檚 airway.
Regular oral care procedures resumed in early July, and through mid-January 2021, when this article was published, not one case of COVID-19 had originated from the clinic, says Windsor, who credits UMSOD鈥檚 planning for this success.
鈥淲e had fortunately planned well in advance for this,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ith the swine flu situation about 10 years ago, we had to order N-95 masks, so we had a good supply of those on hand at the school, which allowed us to open up right away for emergency treatments.鈥�
The 11 people on the UMSOD team who executed this strategy are being honored as 网红爆料, Baltimore Champions of Excellence, but Windsor says it was a larger group effort as well.
鈥淎ll of our faculty were involved in one way or another,鈥� he said. 鈥淔or example, we had faculty doing phone triage when a patient would call in, determining whether it was a real emergency or a situation where we could give them advice over the phone, call in a prescription, or defer treatment in some way.
鈥淭here were dozens of people involved. Everybody was grappling with the new procedures and protocols, and doing it during a health care crisis. They did a really terrific job.鈥�
Mark A. Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA, dean and professor of UMSOD, agreed.
鈥淏y responding quickly and collaboratively when the shutdown began last March, these clinicians ensured that emergency oral health care continued to be available to patients who needed it,鈥� Reynolds said. 鈥淭heir commitment to providing uninterrupted emergency dental care during a public health crisis is a testament to their dedication and nimbleness as professionals.鈥�
鈥� Lou Cortina
