Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the RCDSO has focused on ensuring that the public receives safe and appropriate care and that dentists and their staff are able to practice safely. Since the late spring, the course of the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted: vaccination coverage is high; many public health indicators are trending downwards; Ontario’s CMOH Directives … Read more
A majority of Canadians are not pleased with how their provincial governments are handling health care, according to a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute. The non-profit research organization polled more than 5,000 Canadians earlier this month and found that nearly three quarters, or 72 per cent, were critical of their provincial governments when it comes … Read more
I’m sitting at my desk on a Sunday afternoon in March, contemplating the past 24 months. It was around this time in 2020 that I travelled to Malaysia for an annual academic meeting at IMU, our partner university in Kuala Lumpur. I had a slight concern about a newly emerging respiratory virus but believed that … Read more
At this point it is a well-known fact that the dental industry is going through a very stressful phase. Staff shortages, increased costs, increased safety measures – these all impact the stress levels of practice owners and team members alike. In fact, the amount of stress being felt is leading to even more staffing issues … Read more
The CDHO has partnered with Ontario’s oral health regulatory Colleges to produce the following statement on fallow times and closed operatories. This statement is endorsed by: Glenn Pettifer – Registrar/CEO, CDHO Roderick Tom-Ying – Acting Registrar/CEO, CDO Dan Faulkner – Registrar/CEO, RCDSO Judy Rigby – Registrar/CEO, CDTO Ontario’s oral health regulatory Colleges (Dental Hygienists, Denturists, … Read more
A “renowned” dentist allegedly flouted lockdown rules and performed extractions and dental implants on patients in the early months of New Zealand’s Covid-19 outbreak. The treatments did not qualify as urgent or emergency care, the Dental Council argued before the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal today, the only procedures allowed to proceed under alert level 3. … Read more
COVID-19 vaccination rates are high for doctors, nurses and other independent B.C. health professionals, Health Minister Adrian Dix and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry reported Tuesday. The largest group, the 63,000-member College of Nurses and Midwives, has not yet reported final totals for having at least two doses of approved vaccines, but their preliminary … Read more
Some dentists in Quebec are only now discovering they’re not eligible for PCR testing for COVID-19 — resulting in shock, confusion and occasionally hundreds of dollars worth of private testing. The province limited PCR testing to priority groups in January during the Omicron wave, when the virus began spreading at an alarming rate and public health couldn’t keep up … Read more
The COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted access to dental care and routine immunizations for many children and a new report from Toronto’s top doctor says that the city needs to work with the province to create a plan to address the backlog. The report, which will be considered by Toronto’s Board of Health today, takes a wider … Read more
Doom and Gloom. That is all that we have been consistently living with for the last 2 years. It’s time for all of this to end. We cannot possibly live comfortably with all of this negativity around us. Is life really as bad as it has seemed during this unprecedented time in our lives? Probably … Read more
As COVID-19 restrictions ease, now is the time to bring back those patients who have avoided their dental appointments due to the pandemic. In fact, 86 percent of dentists that saw a decrease in their active patients over the last couple of years credit the pandemic. As we discussed last month, one of the most … Read more
To say that 2020 threw the world a giant curve ball would be one of the understatements of the decade. For some, it felt as though the earth had stopped revolving on its axis and it has never quite begun turning the same way. Government mandates closing offices, PPE requirement that increased costs and created … Read more
Public health will send redeployed staff back to their regular jobs at the end of April despite a resurgence of COVID that is forecast to last into the summer. Hamilton medical officer of health Dr. Elizabeth Richardson says programs postponed or downsized for more than two years now have “significant deficits of care” and need regular staff to return. Richardson … Read more
Visiting the dentist on a regular basis is important for good oral health maintenance and management. Before the pandemic, dentists were seeing patients anywhere from every 3 months to every 2 years, depending on the individual’s requirements. However, since the onslaught of COVID-19 many appointments had to be cancelled and rearranged. Now, as we emerge … Read more
Jeffrey L Fellows, Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, Portland, OR, presented the “Impact of SARS-CoV-2 on the Sustainability of Dental Practice: National-Dental-PBRN” at the hybrid 51st Annual Meeting & Exhibition of the AADOCR, held in conjunction with the 46th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association for Dental Research (CADR), online and onsite in Atlanta, GA, on … Read more
Just when we thought that we had the PPE shortage issue under control, had put up barriers, air purifiers and made sure our patients felt safe to come back to the office for treatment, here comes yet another hurdle we must overcome – NO STAFF! What happened to all the assistants and hygienists who used … Read more
In the world of dentistry, we all know that, in reality, there is no such thing as a “solo practitioner”. Even a dental office owned and run by a single dentist needs a team to create a prosperous dental practice. And while we know the job market is inevitably cyclical, the pandemic has made it … Read more
Provinces across the country are slowly beginning to reduce the protocols and restrictions that were put in place as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is important to stay diligent when practicing safety protocols in your dental office. 79 percent of dentists shared with us that they have found managing staff stress a … Read more
The B.C. government has scrapped plans to expand the province’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate to all health-care workers in private practice – but will be adopting an “informed consent” system for patients who want to avoid unvaccinated service providers. The move has two of the province’s most high-profile unions exploring whether that means hundreds of laid-off … Read more
The Government of Ontario announced that several COVID-19 measures will be withdrawn in the coming weeks. While the Government has decided that masking requirements will be removed in most places on March 21 this does not include health-care settings. Dentistry is a health care profession and infection prevention and control requirements, including PPE requirements, are … Read more