Since there is no cure or vaccine for COVID-19, experts highly recommend only leaving your house for the essentials. This includes trips to the grocery store, pharmacy, bank, doctor’s office, and yes, your dentist’s office as well. If it’s time for your biannual checkup or you’re in need of dental care, it’s more important than ever that you don’t put off your appointment! Read on to find out why and what steps your Collinsville dentist is taking to keep you safe during your visit.
Stop Oral Health Issues from Developing in Quarantine
Months of staying at home has probably added extra stress, boredom, and other dramatic changes to your everyday life. Unfortunately, these factors can all significantly increase your risk of cavities, gum disease, and weakened teeth. Even if your teeth look and feel fine right now, you may have the earliest stages of these oral health problems. Seeing your dentist will allow them to spot and stop any issues you may have developed in quarantine before they advance into much larger issues.
Prevent Dental Emergencies & Avoid the ER During COVID-19
Leaving small oral health conditions like cavities and gum disease untreated can lead to infected, painful, and loose teeth. Thankfully, if you have a dental emergency during the pandemic, you can avoid potential COVID-19 exposure at the ER by visiting your Collinsville dentist instead. However, a regular checkup every six months can go a long way in preventing dental emergencies from happening in the first place.
A Healthy Smile Promotes a Strong Immune System
Unlike other parts of your body, your teeth can’t heal themselves, so leaving problems untreated will only allow them to get worse. As issues like dental infections and gum disease grow, they begin to pose a threat to your overall wellbeing. Eventually, this will trigger your body’s immune response. However, the more energy your immune system spends combating these preventable problems, the less prepared it will be to fight off COVID-19 and its potential complications.
Your Collinsville Dentist’s Commitment to Safety
Thankfully, long before COVID-19, your Collinsville dentist has been practicing excellent infection control protocols to keep you safe from sickness like the common cold and the flu. In these unusual times, they’ve established even more safety precautions to keep you, their staff, and the community as healthy as possible while providing the important dental care you need. Some of these new guidelines include:
- Rearranging the inside of the practice to create more open space, add one-way traffic areas, and other steps to make social distancing a practical reality.
- Updated personal protective equipment requirements for staff members to minimize the risk of spreading germs throughout the practice.
- Sequenced scheduling to allow more physical space between patients and more time between appointments for additional cleaning.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed many aspects of our everyday priorities, but it hasn’t changed the importance of your routine dental checkup. If you need to visit your Collinsville dentist, you can rest assured that they’re taking every precaution to keep you and your smile as healthy as possible.
About the Author
Dr. Michael Lavinder has been keeping the smiles of Collinsville, VA happy and healthy for over 30 years. To continue to provide the best care for his patients, he has been carefully monitoring the COVID-29 pandemic as well as the recommendations of the CDC. After weeks of postponement, he and his team are excited to welcome back their patients for their routine appointments. If you’d like to learn more about their Commitment to Safety or what to expect at your next appointment, feel free to contact them via their website or at (276) 647-1494.