Troy Thompson talks to Dr. John W.
Starr of the Golden Triangle Periodontal Center in Columbus on the reopening of his clinic and the safety guidelines he and his staff are observing amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
For more information, call (662) 329-2696 or 323-7066 or visit www.jwstarrmd.com
Troy thompson: welcome to on the beat, everyone.
I'm troy thompson.
Joining me today for a conversation on how he is practicing the best guidelines when it comes to his office is dr. starr.
Welcome to the show my friend.
Dr. starr: good to see you again, troy.
Troy thompson: very good to see you.
I'm glad that you're reopen.
How long have you been open for now?
Dr. starr: technically, i've been open two weeks for certain procedures as a specialist and then the general dentist population started last week.
Troy thompson: well, how has this whole covid-19 infection virus, that we now have in the world, how is it effecting your dental office?
Dr. starr: well& honestly, we're viral scared people anyhow because of hepatitis-c, hiv viruses and things so our cleanliness in our dental offices is huge anyhow.
We have anti-viral wipes, anti-viral spray, we use shields and protection devices when we do procedures.
Where it's affected us is towards the front office where we bring people into the reception area or waiting room and dealing with those kinds of situations and one- on-one with businesspeople and assistances doing certain procedures.
That's changed a little bit - how we protect us in our office which, in turn, protects the patients.
So, we are very clean.
We were clean before, we're clean now.
Troy thompson: you've got a beautiful office and it always looked clean when i went there so there's no worries with that.
But i have a question from a viewer if you wouldn't mind me asking you, "what additional protocols has the mississippi state board of dental examiners put into place to protect the employees as well as the patients?"
Dr. starr that& that is big because we use ppes - personal protection equipment - to protect us from the virus, okay.
And i'll demonstrate in one second but where it's made it better for us is that we've had to do one-on-one bringing a patient back.
For example, we've talked in the car, we do screenings on if they've been exposed, if they have underlying health issues that could be a problem, we've checked their temperature at the door, we go through all that and then we move them directly to the room and we do not leave that room until we are finished and dismiss the patient.
Then, we clean everything then.
Troy thompson: well, if you wouldn't mind, i asked you to show us your ppe equipment and give us an example of what we - what you - would look like when we come into the office.
If you wouldn't mind?
Dr. starr: sure.
You know the big thing, of course, is the mask and you've seen the mask and we have n-95 masks or level 3 masks that protect from viruses.
We have to have eye protection, we have to have glove protection, and we have to have a barrier between myself and the patient which i'm wearing them.
I usually put this on before i enter the room and, of course, these are disposable to discard.
If we use aerosols, we have to have a face shield and so this face shield - one that was actually made by mississippi state - it has it where no aerosol can get on us& troy thompson: wow!
Dr. starr: &so when we've finished the procedure, we take this off and eliminate the shield, this disposable shield, cast aside everything, get rid of the gloves, we can take our hats off, we can take our masks off- troy thompson: -everything is disposable?
Dr. starr: yes, and that is the problem because we are short on those things in the country.
It's a battle for us to get this and make this work.
Troy thompson: very quickly& dr. starr, what's the biggest hurdle that dental offices have had to overcome since this pandemic?
Dr. starr: really, the ppes but it's like i said we are pretty clean and all the dental offices have done this but having the personal protection for the expanded staffs like the people at the receptionist area, the assistants that shuttle people back and forth& that's been very difficult.
The protocols that the board has done have really been pretty reasonable.
Troy thompson: well& dr. starr, as
Troy Thompson talks to Dr. John W. Starr of the Golden Triangle Periodontal Center in Columbus on the reopening of his clinic and..