After many patients put off their appointments due to COVID-19 concerns, dental offices are busy again.
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However, dental practitioners are facing another challenge.
"Anytime we need to purchase a product, whether it's lidocaine, or PPE, which is gloves, and disposable gowns, the cost of that has increased dramatically, and sometimes it can be difficult to purchase," said Dr. Aaron Noordmans.
"If we're 3D printing, maybe that new material is taking -- not overnight -- maybe it's taking a week or two weeks to get to us," said Dr. Jared Mosley.
Both have offices in northeast Fresno.
According to the two, shortages, delays and soaring costs are not as bad as they were a couple of months ago, but patients may still feel the effects.
"The difficulty is in the last-minute medication issues for us. For my specific specialty, because I'm oral maxillofacial surgeon, we could be ordering a post-operative narcotic and the pharmacy will call us on the same day and say we don't have that available," explained Dr. Noordmans.
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However, some dental offices are thinking outside of the box and are taking action together to navigate through the supply chain issues.
"We might call another office, another dental office and say, 'Do you have the supply? When we get ours in, we'll exchange with you,'" Dr. Mosley said.
These are issues offices haven't ever experienced before. However, they're making sure it doesn't come at the cost of their patient's oral health.
"If they're emergencies, we're obviously handling it," said Dr. Mosley.
Both said the pandemic has transformed the way they do dentistry.
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