The Sturgeon Hospital has teamed up with a pair of St. Albert dentists to help more ER patients keep their teeth.
Dentists Colin Diener and Brett Shkopich of St. Albert’s Nuvo Dental spoke with the Gazette recently on how they had become the dentists-on-call for the Sturgeon Community Hospital.
A relatively small number of patients at the Sturgeon come into the emergency department with dental issues, said Dr. Brian Deane, site lead for the Sturgeon’s ER. Some have major injuries such as jaw fractures and should be there, but many have less-vital problems such as infections and abscesses that could be prevented with proper dental care.
The Sturgeon doesn’t have dentists on call to treat these patients and usually has to send them to the University of Alberta for treatment, Deane said – a trip that can take many hours.
“If your teeth are real borderline for viability, time can really be of the essence.”
You have to replant a tooth that’s knocked out within 60 minutes if you want to save the root, yet you might wait four to five hours in an emergency room for treatment, Diener said. Meanwhile, you’re taking up space in the ER that could be used by people with more serious injuries.
Diener said he heard about this issue through a friend who was an emergency room nurse and got in touch with Deane about three months ago to see how he could help. He explained that his office was just down the hill from the hospital and was equipped to do dental surgery.
Shkopich said he and Diener are now the de facto on-call dentists for the Sturgeon and regularly advise doctors over the phone on how to treat dental injuries.
“Medical doctors aren’t trained in dentistry,” Diener said, but with the proper advice, they can treat many dental problems in patients.
Doctors at the Sturgeon now have flow-charts with which to diagnose common dental problems and have the option to send patients to Diener and Shkopich instead of the U of A for treatment.
One recent case involved a hockey player that had his front teeth smashed into his palate by a puck.
“If you could imagine what hamburger looks like, that’s what this looked like,” Diener said.
Instead of waiting 10 hours for treatment at the U of A, this patient was sent from the Sturgeon to their office for sutures, splints and plates within two, he continued. The patient did end up losing a tooth, but could have lost four.
Diener said this arrangement means better treatment for patients and could help reduce wait times for other patients in the emergency department.
While he’s not sure what sort of impact this partnership has had on wait times, Deane said doctors at the hospital have been very positive about it.
“They’re able to basically find someone with the expertise that the patient needs that they can refer them off to in a timely fashion.”
Deane emphasized that unless your dental problem is trauma-related, you should take it to a dentist and not the hospital for treatment. Most will make room in their schedule to treat you, and you risk infection if you don’t get a problem addressed.
While the dental surgeries are covered through insurance, Diener and Shkopich say they aren’t charging for their on-call advice to the hospital.
“We both live in the community,” Diener said, and they both know a lot of the ER staff.
“If you can prevent someone from (having) a 10-hour ordeal in the hospital system, it’s good word of mouth.”
