Despite a range of measures introduced by the Victorian government, the number of daily new cases has not significantly decreased. For this reason the Victorian Government has instituted a State of Disaster and moved to Stage 4 restrictions for Melbourne and Stage 3 restrictions for the rest of Victoria.
There are two fundamental guiding principles for dentists practising during this public health emergency:
1. Minimising the risk to themselves, their staff and their patients. We have a crucial role to play in helping to prevent further transmission of COVID-19 in the community.
2. Ensuring that we continue to be able to provide necessary and essential health care to the community.
The ADAVB is providing leadership in these uncertain times and proactively working to help members navigate through this crisis. We met with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Dental Health Services Victoria today to update on the current situation in Victoria, following an update from the Chief Health Officer yesterday.
Under the new restrictions that will now operate across Victoria, dental services will continue to operate, and people will be allowed to visit the dentist for necessary dental care, including if their dentist is more than 5km away.
It is important that patients do not put off or delay going to the dentist if they are experiencing dental problems. As per the advice from the Dental Board of Australia today, ADAVB is providing the following information to help you undertake a risk assessment for your practice.
Metropolitan Melbourne – Level 3 dental restrictions from Friday 7 August 2020
The recommendation for all dental practices in metropolitan Melbourne is that only urgent or immediate dental care that cannot be managed by telehealth should be performed, as long as it can be provided in a clinically safe manner.
This means that dentists should now operate at Level 3 dental restrictions, recognising that we are practising in an environment where there is increased unknown community transmission of COVID-19.
