Routine dental care can resume today across Northern Ireland following a suspension due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, restrictions will be in place.
From today, dentists can carry out aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs), which involves using drills.
Dentists are expected to wear full personal protection equipment and surgeries will be thoroughly cleaned between treatments. However, the British Dental Association in Northern Ireland recently said practices are experiencing a shortage of PPE.
Richard Graham, chair of the British Dental Association’s (BDA) NI Dental Practice Committee, outlined the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown on the industry to Stormont’s health committee recently.
He said without adequate, ongoing support from government, it is ‘impossible to sustain a model based on activity when activity has fallen through the floor.’
“The future of dental services in Northern Ireland now hangs in the balance,” he added.
Dentists have appealed to the Department of Health to cover the cost of buying a higher level of PPE.
During the pandemic, Northern Ireland’s five urgent dental cares centres, located across each of the health trust areas, provided emergency dental care for patients.
Non-urgent dental care resumed at the end of last month.
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