Scaling Back and Preparing for What is Ahead

The end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021 has been a difficult time for everyone with COVID-19 cases steadily rising throughout December and January. With lockdown continuing in various areas, we are turning our focus back to making the most of your practice’s downtime and preparing for the future influx of patients.  

While the first province-wide shutdown did not alter the scope of dental services, Ontario’s current stay-at-home order has resulted in many dental offices scaling back once again to taking in fewer patients than usual.  RCDSO urges dental offices to take additional precautions when providing care to patients. For instance, deferring non-essential appointments to a later date or offering remote appointments for these cases as a precaution to avoid the risk of in-person contact. 

While dental appointments are minimized, there are still opportunities for your team to participate in online training, e-learning, and other important tasks that help maintain your practice. During your office’s downtime, your team can learn how to use your practice management software more efficiently, especially new hires that still need to get used to your software. ABELDent users can use ABELDent Mastery, for example. There are also webinars and online courses you and your team can take to help maintain best practices, and even to earn potential CE credits. 

We have compiled our blog posts throughout the past year as a resource bank for our readers. To read more in-depth about some of our tips for making the most of your office’s downtime, please see our list: 

• Virtual tools to keep up patient relations 
• Utilizing teledentistry to maximize safety 
• Ways to keep your team busy via learning 
• RCDSO’s guide to implementing teledentistry in your practice 

At ABELDent, we are continuing to support dental professionals by working from home. We are hopeful for the future and are still available 24/7 for any of your dental software needs.