On Wednesday April 15, 2020, the GRDS hosted a Coronavirus Forum using GoToMeeting lead by GRDS President Dr. Kelsey Johnson, KDA Executive Board Member Dr. Joe McCarty and Dr. Brad Fulkerson, Past President and current member of the Kentucky Board of Dentistry. We had a good turnout and opportunity to share information and insight. Just like all of your Local Components, we found we have a high level of experience and knowledge and a ton of passion about our wonderful dental profession to share with one another. We learned from each other. Mostly, we learned that we are in this, together.

 

We discussed items that are on all of our minds, such as when we may be able to return to normal practice and what it may look like. We discussed the likelihood that our returning patients will have anxiety and concerns about dental care and overall safety in healthcare settings. We discussed SBA loans, grants and tax credits. We also had a chance to talk about Delta Dental of Kentucky and their Delta Dental of Kentucky Foundation relief program for dental practices and non-profits that have been disrupted due to COVID-19. Please see community.deltadentalky.com/Advance for more on this program. If you are a provider, it is worth a look. We are thankful for Delta Dental of Kentucky for this relief campaign.

 

We shared thoughts about interim PPE requirements and potential future requirements that are to be framed by current collaboration with the ADA and CDC and we will await the guidance they provide. Additional ideas were discussed that may be helpful for other Local Components and their PPE concerns with pricing and availability. Being able to procure proper PPE is a critical step toward allowing us to safely care for our patents and protect our dental teams and us, too. One idea was to create a PPE sharing resource. For example, it may be that you have an excess item to loan and/or you may have an item you need on a daily or periodic basis, until our supply chains catch up. Sharing information in this way, we can support one another.

 

Another example of great teamwork and collaboration was offered by our KDA/LDS member, Dr. Chris Sims. Dr. Sims has secured a manufacturer and distributor of much needed KN-95 dental masks that can be purchased in bulk quantities of 500-5000. Although this is still a limited supply, he has graciously offered to provide all the administrative functions to help get other KDA Members as many of these masks as possible. Feel free to reach Dr. Sims directly at   [email protected] for more details. Thank you, Dr. Sims, for your forward thinking and leadership to help us meet the needs of our patients.

 

We continue to have interactions and dialogue with the Kentucky Board of Dentistry and appreciate the leadership that they provide. The path to reopen is critically important to each of us, our patients and dental teams. We understand that this is a State by State decision and one to be made by Governor Beshear working with the Kentucky Department of Public Health. Please know that your KDA leadership continues to collaborate on how to best assist in this process and ways to communicate how and why we are part of the solution. WE ARE ESSENTIAL!