Visits to the dentist will be more expensive than usual due to the additional expenses involved in keeping practices in step with protective measures against Coronavirus, the CNA reports.
Dentists now have to wear personal protective equipment at work and need to disinfect their space every time a customer leaves.
President of the Cyprus Dental Association Vrasidas Philippides told CNA that the rise in prices for dental services is almost a certainty.
“It’s enough to mention that the additional equipment required based on our estimates costs from 17 to 30 euros per patient. Prices will rise not only because of the equipment but also for the disinfections as recommended by the World Health Organisation, the World Dental Federation and the Council of European Dentists,” Philippides said.
He also explained the drop in the number of patients each dentist can see per day due to the increased time required to execute the recommended protective procedures.
“A dentist will require sufficient time to carefully take off the protective equipment after each patient to prevent infection and then clean it. Afterwards, the space needs to be ventilated, and after that floors and surfaces need to be disinfected so that the next patient can come in. You realise that we will not be working at the same pace as we did before the pandemic. Someone working an 8-hour day will be able to see eight patients at the most,” he explained.
Philippides said that there will be costs in the current expenses that will have to be transferred somewhere. “It will not all be transferred to the patient; we, in turn, must also bear part of the cost. There will be an increase in prices for dental practices for a number of reasons and not just for the equipment,” he noted, mentioning that in Cyprus 90% of dental care is provided by private practices and the rest by the state’s Dental Services.
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