Our Coastal Dental Care team explains which treatments we can offer at the moment and how we keep our patients and staff safe. Find out what you can expect when you come in for your dental treatment.
COVID-19 has changed how many businesses operate and has also affected dentistry. The Australian Dental Association (ADA) limited treatment on level three to emergency and urgent cases only at the start of April. These restrictions have been lifted to level two on Monday, April 27th 2020.
What do the ADA level two dental restrictions mean?
Under level 2, we can now offer our patients non-surgical extractions, examinations, hand scales, simple fillings, and denture procedures. If you have a certain procedure in mind, please don’t hesitate to call your closest practice to find out if we can help you with it at this stage.
Procedures that can’t be offered at the moment include surgical extractions, cleans with an ultrasonic scaler and regular filling and crown treatment requires the use of a dental material called rubber dam.
Are Coastal Dental Care practices open?
All Coastal Dental Care practices are open. However, our opening hours may vary from our regular hours. Please check our individual practice pages or Google listings to find out or give our friendly team a call.
Do Coastal Dental Care practices still accept new patients?
New patients are welcome at any time in our practices. If your regular dentist is closed, we are happy to see you. If you would like to transfer your dental records to us, you can fill in a record release form to do so.
Which precautions does Coastal Dental Care take to keep patients safe?
Our network has established several measures of precaution to keep patients safe. When making or confirming your appointment, our team will ask you health-related questions. This is called a COVID screening and helps us to keep our patients and staff safe. Upon arrival, we provide disinfectant for patients to wash their hands. We also enforce the 1.5m social distancing rule in all our waiting rooms. You may find that chairs have been removed for this purpose and the usual bench seating may be replaced by chairs instead.
In the dental surgery, we will ask you to do a mouth rinse with a 1% hydrogen peroxide solution for 30 seconds as recommended by the ADA.
To protect you and our staff members, all our team members wear additional personal protective equipment (PPE). This may include N95 masks, goggles, face shields and gowns.
Our Coastal Dental Care Kingscliff owner Dr Richard Kneebone explains the changes in the video below.
Can I still use my private health fund extras cover?
Our HICAPS machines are working and you can still claim your dental extras cover for your treatments.
Can I come in for my routine 6-monthly check-up and clean?
Our dentists can offer you your usual check-up (dental examination). For cleans, however, we are not allowed to use ultrasonic scalers. An ultrasonic scaler is an instrument with a vibrating metal tips and a water spray that we usually use to remove plaque.
Due to the restrictions, our team will do a hand scale instead. The difference is that your dentist will manually remove the plaque from your teeth with a hand-held dental scaler and curette.
Can I still get a custom-made mouthguard for when the sporting season starts back up?
All practices offer mouthguard appointments. Our team will take an impression of your teeth and you can choose from one of our three mouthguard packages. This means, you can get ready for when the sporting season starts back up and keep your teeth safe.
Who do I call when I have a dental emergency?
All our practices offer online appointments that you can use to make an emergency booking 24/7. Alternatively, you can call our practices and leave a message if they are closed. Our team will get back to you as soon as they can.
If you prefer to contact us via email or website enquiry, you can do this on our contact us page.
Can I still come for my dental appointment if I am feeling unwell?
For your safety and our staff’s, we screen all our patients during a phone call as part of the dental service restrictions and ask some health-related questions. This includes questions such as if you have a cold or a fever and other risk factors for coronavirus.
If you have any of these symptoms, it is best to delay your dental treatment and see if you can get tested for COVID-19. If you are in pain, please call our practice and the dental team will be able to offer you advice about what you can do at home to take care of your oral health.
Book an appointment online today
Coastal Dental Care is proud to be here for the community during these tough times. You can book your dental appointment online 24/7 or contact one of our practices to assist you with your oral health.
