Do I still need to wear a mask at the dentist?

The short answer is no!

Our reception team still get asked every day by patients if they still need to wear a mask when attending their appointments. We get it-people are keen to know what is asked of them.

It hasn’t been mandatory in England to wear masks in health care settings for many months now. For a while at Wollaton Dental Care, we continued to politely ask our patients if they would mind still wearing a mask when attending their appointments with us whilst in our waiting areas. This was after careful consideration, in order to protect our vulnerable patients particularly when there were increases in COVID cases in Nottingham.

We decided to remove this request around Autumn of last year. This was both for our patients and for our team members (when not treating patients). We are acutely aware that face masks are very much a barrier to effective communication for all patients but particularly for those who may not hear well or those patients who are deaf. Many people find them hard to breath normally in and some people get claustrophobic. Masks can also add to problems with their vision for some people as they struggle to clear the mist from their glasses caused by wearing a mask inside when coming in from the cooler weather outside! It is also harder to read nonverbal communication cues such as facial expressions and to a certain extent body language too. We want to see if you are smiling!

Prior to COVID, our clinicians would have felt it was highly inappropriate to speak to a patient whilst wearing their mask as it is a known barrier to communication and we remember that! You may still see the odd one of us floating around in a mask. This might be someone not in a face to face role at that time or just their personal preference. We also ask team members with any symptoms of a respiratory virus (such as a cold) to wear a mask.

If you feel more comfortable continuing to wear a mask, then please of course do so but for all of the above reasons, we no longer request that our patients wear a mask when visiting our practice.