Dentists must follow DOH’s current PPE conservation guidance (the guidelines can be found in yellow on page 3), which will by regularly reviewed and updated by the DOH, as published on the DOH website at www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus.

The FDA has stated that it is continuing to monitor the domestic and global supply chain for potential disruptions or shortages and will “use all available tools to react swiftly and mitigate the impact to U.S. patients and healthcare professionals.” In the meantime, the agency encourages healthcare facilities to report any supply disruptions to deviceshortages@fda.hhs.gov.

If you do not have adequate supplies to meet regulations, you should reschedule patient appointments when required PPE is replenished for your office.

Possibly. Governor Inslee’s plan for the safe expansion of non-urgent health care services requires offices to implement strategies for addressing employees who have had unprotected exposures to COVID-19 positive patients, are symptomatic, or ill, which should include requiring COVID-19 positive employees to stay at home while infectious, and potentially restricting employees who were directly exposed to the COVID-19 positive employee. The CDC has also issued: Interim Guidance for Risk Assessment and Work Restrictions for Healthcare Personnel with Potential Exposure to COVID-19. The guide provides assistance when applying work restrictions for providers with potential exposure to COVID-19.

If a patient with a confirmed case of COVID-19 requires urgent/emergent dental treatment, that care should not be delivered in standard dental office. The dentist and the patient’s medical providers should work together to determine the appropriate precautions on a case-by-case basis: this coordinated approach is critical in order to ensure that the risk of potential spread of disease among patients, visitors, and staff is kept as low as possible.

Because dental settings are not typically designed to carry out all of the Transmission-Based Precautions that are recommended for hospital and other ambulatory care settings, dentists and medical providers will need to determine whether the facility is an appropriate setting for the necessary services for a potentially infectious patient. It may be necessary for treatment to be performed in a healthcare setting that offers the additional protections that should be maintained in these cases.