RCSEd International Dental Ambassadors on COVID-19: Deployment Insights
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Health care providers worldwide are being challenged to meet the needs of increasing numbers of patients during the COVID-19 outbreak, with active cases expected to overcome the medical capability to respond within its normal workforce. Dentists, with their knowledge of anatomy, pharmacology, physiology, and surgical techniques, are invaluable to the health care worker capacity necessary to meet this need.
We spoke with Mark Tawadrous, RCSEd International Dental Ambassador in North Africa and Mediterranean region, who is a General Dental Practitioner, operating digital dentistry in his own clinic in Cairo, Egypt. Mark provides insights into how dentists in Egypt are helping the healthcare system to manage the crisis.
Have you or any of your colleagues in Egypt been redeployed during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Is there available training in case of redeployment?
"So far there hasn’t been any redeployment for dentists as our healthcare system is managing the crisis with available medical professions. However, voluntary forms have been filled by dentists who are willing to support in fighting COVID-19. Appropriate online courses are now available to complete and be prepared with the basic and advanced knowledge of the pandemic management in different set ups. Additional on-site training will be necessary in case of redeployment to simulate different scenarios in unfamiliar environments."
How are dental professionals adapting during the COVID-19 pandemic and what are the main priorities established during these difficult times?
"There is no certainty to the coming time either will be a pandemic outage and redeployment or gradually back to normal life performing routine dental procedures that may resort to innovative infection control protocol. Some dentists are driven to figure out an effective and evidence-based way of clinic decontamination regarding aerosol generating procedures so they can re-open their dental clinics again. It’s time of researching and readiness for everyone.
The main priority is the patient and dental professions safety alongside saving PPE to be available for fighting COVID-19 and dental emergency cases. Currently tele-dentistry and phone consultations are the main method of contact with our patients."
How have education and training programs been affected by this crisis in your country?
"As university campuses are closed everywhere, e-learning has been carried out through online platforms. This hard time is affecting clinical training and post-grad programs since no regular dental treatments are carried out. Fortunately, huge efforts have been made by education decision makers to assure that the student best interest is a priority in this hard time in terms of education quality and innovative ways of assessment."
We are currently recruiting new Dental Ambassadors to represent the RCSEd Faculty of Dental Surgery, visit this page to find out more and to apply.
