BAOMS online resource for hospital dentists working on COVID frontline
31 March 2020
Dr Hesham Emam and Dr Vinita Shekar, dentists who work in hospital oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) departments, have built an online resource to offer support and advice for hospital dentists who are, or who soon will be, working on the frontline of care in the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic across the four nations.
Dr Hesham Emam said: “Hospital dentists like myself and Vinita usually provide surgical treatment for patients’ mouths. With our specialty association, the British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons (BAOMS), we written some advice and collected some material and links that we hope will help our dental colleagues when they join the teams caring for COVID patients.”
BAOMS Chair Patrick Magennis added: “All members of our OMFS departments have to deliver important emergency care for our own OMFS patients, and also contribute to the general COVID workload. This makes OMFS consultants nervous, and we are all medically as well as dentally qualified. Our SAS and trust grade staff are all singly qualified dentists working in a medical environment. It is important that BAOMS offers support.”
Dr Vinita Shekar, who represents SAS grades in BAOMS and at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Dentists across the UK, some who work in hospitals and some from dental practice, are willing to do this work. They will be providing care well outside their normal clinical comfort zone. Hesham, myself and all the BAOMS Associate Fellows have built this web resource and are offering to be there for our dental colleagues, to offer support and advice. They need to keep safe, and remember we are all in this together and we are with them all the way.”
BAOMS President Rob Bentley, Consultant Craniofacial and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon, said: “BAOMS has issued important advice for SAS and NHS trust dentists to see and treat only emergencies and, when they do, to wear the correct PPE. Most SAS grades are able to act on this advice, although a few have difficulty getting the better FFP3 masks. But they are also being asked to help outside OMFS departments in wards and on ITUs because everyone in the NHS has to contribute in this crisis. They have our support.”
Ends
For further information and interviews contact: Siân Evans on 020 8674 8921 / 07752 414433 or BAOMS
Notes to editors
Background
- Dr Hesham Emam is SAS Grades representative on the Royal College of Surgeons of England Faculty of Dental Surgery Board and BAOMS Associate Fellow
- Dr Vinita Shekar is BAOMS Council representative for SAS staff and Chair of the Royal College of Surgeons of England SAS Forum.
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