Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, and good afternoon to the members of committee. It’s my pleasure to present to you today on behalf of the Canadian Dental Association.
I have been serving as president of the CDA since April, but previously I served on the board for the past six years and have volunteered in dental associations across the country for three decades. I am also the managing doctor of a dental co-operative with 10 practices and 150 team members throughout Vancouver. As well, I'm an adjunct professor for the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. I'm an M.B.A. dentist.
I am pleased to be joined today by Dr. Aaron Burry, who is CDA’s associate director of professional affairs. Dr. Burry is a public health dentist with more than 30 years' experience in navigating issues with both practice and public policy. He's also an M.B.A. dentist. In addition to the work that he has done to lead the CDA’s work in understanding and addressing the challenges of COVID-19 for our profession, Dr. Burry has been serving emergency patients in a public health clinic throughout the past few months and can share with you that unique perspective.
We come today with three essential recommendations to share: first, that greater consideration be given to dentistry as vital front-line health care workers when considering access to PPE; second, that the federal government create a specific oral health envelope of $3 billion as part of the Canada health transfer; and, third, that basic oral health standards be part of any future review of the state of health in long-term care facilities.
I’ll come back to each of these recommendations throughout my remarks, but first I’d like to walk you through the challenges that dentistry has faced as a result of the pandemic, as well as those that are emerging.
In March, by public health orders, dental clinics across Canada ceased providing oral health treatments, with the exception of very restricted emergency care, which was designed to keep patients away from the emergency operations of hospitals. Now, dental clinics are cautiously beginning a staged return to practice in accordance with the guidance set out by their provincial dental regulators, public health authorities and workplace safety regulators.
This guidance has varied from one province to the next and has resulted in great confusion among dentists and patients. Also, within provinces, unfortunately, between those regulators, there sometimes is conflict in regard to regulations that require different protocols or procedures to be used when providing the same type of treatment. This also leads to significant confusion and angst for dentists as they attempt to establish the new normal.
What dentists are finding as they return to practice is a physically demanding and mentally exhausting experience. Dental offices are essentially mini outpatient hospitals and, like any hospital offering outpatient care, we follow strict infection control procedures and practices. That's not new. However, the new guidance and regulations stemming from COVID-19 have made performing outpatient procedures more difficult, physically draining and time-consuming.
Dentists must do considerable additional preparation before seeing each patient, and our early experience in getting back to work suggests that they treat 50% to 67% fewer patients per day. Communication with those patients is also much more difficult. It’s not simply a single aspect of the new approach that is problematic, but rather a cascading effect of changes to how every aspect of care has changed. From the pre-work before coming to the office, to the parking lot, which has now become our reception area—