Many months have gone by since COVID invaded our world, our workplace and our way of life. Are you feeling like you are ready to have it over and done with? I think many of us are feeling that way. There have been many good things to come out of this pandemic, and many more to come, I am sure. One of the good things is that we have had to take a good look at our standard of care and ask ourselves if we are really doing the best we can for our patients. Have we just ignored high volume evacuation as dental hygienists, because it was too difficult to handle? Have we perhaps been lax in our disinfecting procedures because we don't have enough time? These are issues we all deal with as hygienists in today's world.
So now the question becomes... what do we do? Do we just keep doing what we have always been doing and hope for the best, or do we try to step up our game? I hope the latter is the case. Look for products that make your life easier and safer. Pre-procedural rinses to lower the possibility of infected aerosols...something to hold your HVE, such as the Dental Flex Arm...great disinfectant cleaners such as Bio-surf, which has a 3 minute kill time for most bacteria and viruses. There are wonderful products out there. We just need to put them into use and not slip back in to the old and "easy" ways we have always done things. We live in a different world, and even if we hope it's a bad dream, it's time to wake up and make some changes!