It’s the peak of flu season and coronavirus is all over the news and spreading like a…. well, you know. Getting sick can really get in the way of our lives, and most of us want to just push through and do what we need to get done, fever be darned. We especially don’t want to cancel a dental appointment, or heaven forbid a haircut. We know it can be difficult to get back in with your favorite hygienist here at Lake Baldwin Dental. However, there are a few situations when we would ask you, please, to just reschedule.
Flu and Flu-like Symptoms
If you have been diagnosed with the flu, or had flu-like symptoms, you may be contagious for up to seven days. Please push your dental appointment out until you are no longer in that contagious period. While we do wear personal protective equipment and thoroughly sanitize our operatories between patients, any flu-like illnesses are best kept at home. On top of which, you will heal faster if you take it easy, so you should really be binging The Witcher on Netflix instead of being out and about.
Flu-like symptoms include fever, chills, muscle ache, cough, fatigue, and congestion. We also include vomiting in that list for the purposes of limiting contagion, although it is not a symptom of the flu. If you do have a cough, give us a call so we can let you know if it’s going to be a problem. If it’s one of those lingering residual coughs from an illness you had over a week ago, it may be annoying but it’s not usually a problem. When in doubt, just call!
Cold Sores
If you have an active herpetic lesion anywhere near your mouth, please reschedule your appointment. An active lesion will ooze or bleed, and that includes anything that still has a scab. Once the lesion no longer cracks or bleeds, you’re fine to come back in.
Not only will skipping your appointment help to protect the clinicians here at Lake Baldwin Dental, but it will also help you. With all the pulling and stretching we have to do during a cleaning or filling, it’s likely that we will disturb your sore and make it take longer to heal. On top of which, if any of that fluid from inside the sore gets spread to other places on your face, the infection can likewise travel. If you have an appointment coming up and feel that tell-tale tingle of a cold sore coming on, give us a call! We may be able to set you up with medication to prevent or shorten the lifespan of your lesion. (Please see this previous post to differentiate between a cold sore and a canker sore.)
Severe Pain or Congestion
If you are experiencing symptoms that will make your dental procedure intolerable, let us know ahead of time to see if we can work around it. For example, if you went to Gasparilla last weekend and came back with a severe sunburn that makes it hurt to move your face and you’re eating through a straw (totally not speaking from personal experience), we may need to give you some time to heal. Likewise if you have a severe canker sore that makes it hurt to move your lips or tongue, or if you’re in the middle of a really bad TMJ disorder flare-up. Similarly, if you cannot breathe through your nose at all, or that residual cough mentioned above makes it hard to lie on your back, it may be worth working in your appointment in a few days when things have calmed down.
All that being said, we do understand that our schedule tends to run pretty packed. Especially if you’re looking for that early morning cleaning, it’s going to be difficult to get back on the schedule for your favorite time. We will do everything in our power to get you back with your favorite clinician in a time slot that works for you. Obviously, we don’t like to cancel appointments either! But there are a few situations where it really is better to just push it back a few days. Stay healthy, Orlando!
