Industry news

IDA President Dr. Steve Ellinwood created the COVID-19 Task Force to develop and a distill a series of best practices for PPE guidance and patient safety using materials from the Center for Disease Control, the Indiana State Department of Health, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, and the American Dental Association.

The ADA is recommending that dentists nationwide postpone elective procedures in response to the spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, across the country. “The American Dental Association recognizes the unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances dentists and all health care professionals face related to growing concern about COVID-19,” according to the March 16 statement from the ADA President Chad P. Gehani.

The ADA provided its members and their patients detailed guidance on March 18 on what to consider dental emergencies and nonemergency dental care as part of an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, and alleviate the burden on hospital and emergency departments.

The guide is meant to provide additional guidance following an Association recommendation that dentists nationwide postpone elective procedures to do their part to “mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

The ADA is recommending that dentists nationwide postpone elective procedures in response to the spread of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, across the country. “The American Dental Association recognizes the unprecedented and extraordinary circumstances dentists and all health care professionals face related to growing concern about COVID-19,” according to the March 16 statement from the ADA President Chad P. Gehani.

The state of Washington passed a bill in its senate “creating the dental laboratory registry within the department of health and establishing minimum standards for dental laboratories serving dentists in Washington state.” According to National Association of Dental Laboratories Chief Staff Executive Bennett Napier, this was the first new laboratory standards bill on registration passed by any state legislature in more than 30 years.

There is no question that dental insurance has had a positive influence in availing the public to dental healthcare services. Unfortunately for dental consumers, the insurance industry’s primary responsibility is profit generation for shareholders. This is in direct contrast to a doctor’s primary obligation of placing patient interests to the fore.