A-Z of PPE for Dentists – IC007

This episode aims to navigate the Dentist around the complicated world of Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE). I literally start from the basics and we build up - hope this helps! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30dNlplwdoI Need to Read it? Check out the Full Episode Transcript below! What is a Fit test vs Fit checkWho should be paying for the FFP masks?! Associates?!Oops I failed my fit test - what now?Should we just drop FFP2/FFP3 and just use re-usable RPE that is way more cost effective?UDCs are reportedly keeping the same FFP3 mask on for several patients (1 per session) with a surgical mask on top - if they are getting away with it, can we do it in practice to save money?Does FFP2 NEED to be fit tested? Can you get away without one if you compensate with a face shield?What's the difference between FFP2 and FFP3?What does a FFP even mean?Should you be stocking up now?Watch out for the fakes!Will there be a phased return or 'chaotic return'?If I am antibody positive, do I need to bother with all this?DO we need more fit testers? How to get involved?How are we going to meet the healthcare demand of fit testing?When do you think I'll get to place composites again?! Click below for full episode transcript: Opening Snippet: Hi, guys, welcome to another episode of Protrusive Dental podcast... Main Interview: [Jaz]This one's all about respiratory protective equipment. It's a massive, massive topic at the moment. And I just want to help out by covering a little bit mostly because I felt as though I knew nothing. And I had some people reach out to me, what do we do about our beards? Do we get FFP2s, fit test it, this will make a good topic for your podcast. So I reached out some guys, it culminated in this episode, which is going to cover all the very basics of the more sort of political ethical questions around RPE in dentistry, for whatever it is that we'll be getting back to work. I know the UDCs are working under some conditions whereby they have access to some forms of RPE. So discussing all that, I have to give a disclaimer that one of the reasons I made this episode was because I am concerned as a Sikh man, with a turban and a beard, but how I'm going to go back to work and certainly for those in my community, how are we going to get back to work and I want voice or my community to be heard. So that's one of the reasons but that makes up around about 0.2% of this podcast. This podcast episode is applicable to everyone. But I do want to reach out to my community and sort of offer them something. And basically, there's not much in it in terms of how I can help people with beards, Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, those of us who have facial hair, essentially, we are at the mercy of the higher powers, the WHO, Public Health England, the CDO, NHS England. So all these bodies are advising us. And actually, they are all blind. And what I mean by that is that there is just not enough evidence yet. So I think the method that everyone is now adopting is a better safe than sorry, hence why at the moment, the guidance suggests that you should be using a filtering SPS for any AGP related procedures. So that's where that guidance comes from. It may be that just a surgical mask and a visor is just as good. But the thing is, we don't know yet. I think the due to political reasons, and due to safety first and being better to be safe than sorry, that's the reason that we're going a bit extreme into some of the guidance recommendations in terms of worker needs to wear these FFP2 or FFP3 masks. So I think that's where that comes from. The only thing I can say is that I was surprised to learn a little bit that all this RPE that we wear is actually mostly to do with protecting us, not so much the patient. Yes, the patient's important as a byproduct, the patient should be protected. But we'll also think about how to protect us as interesting that, for example, if I was to wear an FFP2 mask with my beard, technically,