New Castle, Pa.-based Refresh Dental is requiring all patients scheduled for an appointment to undergo a COVID-19 diagnostic and antibody test before receiving care.
Dental staff will register patients for testing 48 to 72 hours before they are scheduled for treatment. They will be required to produce a nasal swab for the diagnostic test and a blood sample for the antibody test. The tests should take about 15 minutes and results will be issued 24 to 48 hours after they are conducted.
The testing effort is being led by North American Dental Group, the practice's DSO.
"There's much more to this process than just administering the tests," Andrew Matta, DDS, NADG's chief medical officer, said in a news release sent to Becker's June 22. "We wanted to ensure our patients have access to physicians, initial therapies and follow-up services if they test positive and need treatment."
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