Doctor's Corner

Fall 2009 Doctor's Corner

This is the season for school openings, football games, cool weather, and the changing of the leaves. Unfortunately, this season also brings the H1N1 virus (previously referred to as the swine flu). There is a correlation between school being in session and the spread of this virus. The spread of H1N1 has less to do with the change in weather, but more to do with large masses of people congregating in confined spaces.

It is a known fact that people who fly in airplanes are more prone to getting illness due to the close proximity of the passengers and the recirculation of the air in the airplane. One sick passenger can infect a significant percentage of the other passengers whether they are seated in close proximity or not. The same is true when you have one sick student sitting with 30 healthy students. Have you ever sat behind someone at a sporting event who is sneezing or coughing and the person is not adequately covering their mouth? We do not need to be afraid to go out in public any more than we need to fear driving in a car. After all, we have 50,000 fatalities every year in automobiles, and we keep driving. Since we engineer safety features and practice good driving habits to protect ourselves while driving, we therefore should practice better health controls to protect ourselves and others from contracting or spreading diseases.

This year we will implement office policies that we believe will protect you, your children and us better than prior years. We need to start by asking all of our patients to kindly respect others. If you are not feeling well that day, please consider rescheduling your appointment. This would include parents, siblings and friends who may only sit in the reception area. We will require our entire orthodontic team, including the doctors, to do the same. Unfortunately, this may cause some inconveniences for everyone involved. We will all need to work together! We will need to be more selective about who enters our treatment areas. Our office implements excellent infection control techniques which provide you, our patients, with a safe environment. These efforts are significantly reduced with unnecessary traffic in the treatment areas. Therefore, we will limit the amount of unnecessary traffic in the treatment areas. Whenever possible we will permit only patients in the treatment area.

We feel it will benefit all of us to alter our lifestyles to some degree in order to help reduce our chances of contracting the virulent and potentially deadly H1N1 virus.
Here are some helpful suggestions:

• Limit or eliminate shaking hands – we can be polite and say hello/goodbye without touching others.
• Improve your hand hygiene – either wash with soap and water or use a hand sanitizer frequently.
• Consider wearing gloves more this winter.
• Flushing your nose with saline solution regularly.
• Get adequate rest.
• Avoid tightly crowded environments. Even consider a mask if necessary.
• Sanitize your bathrooms at home and keep oral hygiene utensils separated and clean.
• Sanitize phones prior to use if shared with others.
• Limit your exposure to others if you do not feel well.
• Consider flu shots as they become available.
• Do not panic!

Wishing everyone a healthy fall and winter,
Drs. Weber and Morris