dental dam?

thepurplepixie

Sorry brook2jack2 just read you wouldn't do it, don't know why I missed that post.

silvercar

MoneySeeker1 said:

Silvercar - there may be an element of personal perception as to how different people view different procedures. So it may be your personal thing that you prefer it. I didnt know what my personal perception would be and, in common with many people, I did not like it/came over panicky. Whilst we know logically a dentist wouldn't stuff it down our throats and suffocate us - try telling our emotions that....as they don't know that...

Different people also expect a different degree of bodily control and agency. I'm in the increasingly large (now very large) proportion of people that make our own decisions on medical matters - we've read about thalidomide, vaccine reactions, vaginal mesh, etc and been horrified for the people concerned. So we expect to know - and we expect to make our own decisions about any medical procedure and give our "informed consent".

I was just explaining that for me personally it was a much preferred treatment. As I'm entitled to do on an open forum.
Having a lower tooth isolated by the dam, meant I could swallow and move my tongue around as normal without any interference from the dental treatment being done.
It is good to have alternative views as your reaction could be taken to be the norm.
Incidentally I am the patient that has the fear that when a tooth has that metal clamp put around it, the dentist won't be able to remove it, even though my dentist assures me that has never happened, and the one that feared that the gummy impression stuff would pull all my teeth out when removed, plus I react badly to the adrenaline in injections - so I am not the perfect patient by any means.

MoneySeeker1

Indeed - anyone that has a personal preference to have one of those dams (in any circumstances) is entirely their choice so to do. Some people aren't going to have an emotional "Agh! I'm going to be suffocated" reaction and others are. It's entirely individual.

Re the injections - I didnt know there's adrenaline in them - that's a new fact to me. Though I don't have injections either - and some people might much prefer them and it's "each to their own" on that one too. We each know what we can (or can't) cope with personally.

My whole point is that no-one ever told me this is a Covid Times requirement for fillings and it is known that some of us can't handle this. Therefore we all need to be told - in advance - that Covid Times are making that mandatory at the moment. Then we decide whether we personally are okay with it on the one hand v. we'll have to postpone the appointment until it's Normal Times again (because we aren't personally okay with it).

I should have also been told I'd have to leave handbag at reception in advance - but I had been told by someone else I don't know elsewhere in the country that she had been surprised to find that was a requirement when she went and ended up having a row about it. So I was "forewarned is forearmed" in that respect and prepared and figured out what to do about that requirement. I think we probably all know about that row now - and how to avoid it (or worrying ourselves on the other hand) and both "parties" to this can manage that temporary requirement.

brook2jack2

I am interested , money seeker , why you think all these measures are put in place? Do you think they are to protect yourself , the staff and other patients or for some other reason? 

I find it hard to understand why someone would have a row about leaving a handbag in a locked practice under the care of people who they trust to do a complex medical procedure. Taking anything into the surgery room means that article will get covered in aerosol produced during treatment. If you happen to be an asymptomatic covid carrier how many places will you take that hand bag and handle it then touch something else? 

All these precautions are not done for the hell of it , the intention is to protect patients and staff during aerosol procedures. 

This is not normal times for dentistry , dental staff are under immense pressure from trying to catch up with treatment and emergencies despite only being able to run at 20% capacity or less due to protective measures that need to be taken. 

On top of that staff are rightly worried about their safety working inches away from many peoples mouths and worried about their job security due to massive decrease in practice turnover. 

In this situation do you think they would be instituting procedures which add to delay and expense if they were not absolutely necessary?

MoneySeeker1

The reason many people think these temporary changes have been made boils down, in simplest language, to "The Government/Welsh Assembly/etc have said they must be".

Some people are worried about Covid. Some of us aren't and just think "Well - there are people abiding by the regulations and we understand that they are - and just want to be told what temporary 'rules/regulations' changes there are in advance - so that we know what they are doing that will impact on us". We know the "normal procedures" - but we don't know the "temporary Abnormal Procedures".

Maybe those customers/etc that are in the "worried about Covid" group might already know some of this stuff. Those of us that aren't worried about Covid (for whatever reason) won't know about much/if any of the "rules/regulations" other people might be abiding by. Hence why, if we are in a setting where other people will be abiding by "rules/regulations" on this - we need to know in advance what ones might/will impact on us personally - so we can make our own decisions whether to just "wait for Normal Times" again etc.

All we know is that dental staff are going to be wearing lots of protective gear and we will be told to wait outside the practice till we are called in and that, after we are gone, there are things like the staff will be leaving the room empty for a while/cleaning it/etc. So we assume that we will be told personally of anything else that would affect us personally - eg leaving things at reception that we normally bring in with us and, importantly, if they want to do standard procedures in a different way to the standard way (so we can judge whether we personally can handle that - or will have to wait for Normal Times and the dropping of all these procedures before we personally would go in there again).

That's a fair expectation for a client/customer/patient to have - that we know, in advance, what ways we would be having to do things differently if we go there. To us it's down to "Well the pubs/restaurants/shops are telling us in advance and Everyone Knows what is different about them" and we assume everyone we deal with will tell us in advance.

I know, in a different context, I'd been waiting to get to a hairdresser again and thought I'd found a substitute one (ie nearer to my home than the one I had been using) and had been waiting for when their doors would officially open again and was all set to go there - and then they sent me through an email with list of "rules" in and they were one of the ones that tell customers to wear masks. So I had the disappointing situation of having to send a reply back cancelling the appointment and I found myself having to look for a hairdresser all over again and found one of the ones that don't tell customers to do that - but accept the customer making their own decision. So swopped again to that one - and duly had my hair cut. But at least the replacement one I thought I'd found did tell me in advance - so I had the opportunity to cancel with her and did so. (NB: I did tell newer hairdresser in advance that I don't wear masks and asked her if that was okay with her - so she had the chance to decide whether to go ahead or no - so I was fair to her in case she was a "Worried" and she would have had the opportunity to say if she made customers do so or no - and I'd have carried on looking for one of the ones that don't).

brook2jack2

You do know that masks are to protect other people from you , rather than to protect you and that they will be compulsory in shops in England soon? By asking a hairdresser to see you and you don't have to wear a mask you are asking them at a financially very difficult time to put their business ahead of protecting their health and their other customers health, and all for a haircut.

Many people wear a mask all day with no problems at all and if you start acclimatising yourself now by wearing one for a minute at a time and then building up , you should be able to tolerate one pretty quickly rather than dismissing wearing it out of hand . You will then be doing your bit to protect other people the way you would expect to be protected yourself. 

Many people believe that wearing a mask cuts down on oxygen , which is a total myth see this https://youtu.be/vy7DlcCUBrk

cbrown372

brook2jack2 said:

You do know that masks are to protect other people from you , rather than to protect you and that they will be compulsory in shops in England soon? By asking a hairdresser to see you and you don't have to wear a mask you are asking them at a financially very difficult time to put their business ahead of protecting their health and their other customers health, and all for a haircut.

Many people wear a mask all day with no problems at all and if you start acclimatising yourself now by wearing one for a minute at a time and then building up , you should be able to tolerate one pretty quickly rather than dismissing wearing it out of hand . You will then be doing your bit to protect other people the way you would expect to be protected yourself. 

Many people believe that wearing a mask cuts down on oxygen , which is a total myth see this https://youtu.be/vy7DlcCUBrk

You are wasting breath I'm afraid, this is the person who wouldn't go her Mother's funeral as it would require wearing a mask on public transport to get there.  I hope her hairdresser's other clients don't hear about her refusing to wear a mask as I for sure would boycot that hairdresser and let everyone I know exactly why. She was talking about buying a wig rather than get her hair cut and buying a car to get to the funeral, despite never having driven in all her 40 plus years of holding a licence, rather than using public transport and having the use of an OAP bus pass. It beggars belief but fortunately there aren't many people around the country who are equally as selfish to the public that serve them be it key workers, health workers, shop workers, hairdressers and indeed dentists and I'm sure glad I won't come across her in my day to day life.

Gers

cbrown372 said:

You are wasting breath I'm afraid...

Agree, no point in continuing with your efforts here.  🤷‍♂️🤦‍♀️

suki1964

Well now she's had to wear a mask for a few seconds, maybe she may wise up?

Mind I did have to laugh at her refusing to go to the hairdressers because of the need to wear a mask, when only a month before she was posting about finding a hairdresser that was willing to break lockdown for her

Slinky

I do wonder how comfortable MS would be had she been into the dentist and the staff weren't wearing any masks or gloves and were breathing all over her, using tools which hadn't been cleaned with those nasty chemicals. Probably like dentistry was done a couple of hundred years back.