While many in New York state were anxiously awaiting word as to whether public and private schools teaching grades K through 12 in New York state would be allowed to reopen this fall, some institutions of higher learning were far along in the reopening process.
At Touro College of Dental Medicine at New York Medical College, third-year dental students on July 20 began making the rounds of treating patients at Touro Dental Health, a facility with 109 dental treatment chairs used not only in teaching dental students their craft, but also as a dental clinic serving the community with affordable care.
“Pre-Covid we had about 220 students working in the clinic,” Dr. Edward Farkas, vice dean and professor of dental medicine at Touro told the Business Journal. “They are paired so that each dental operatory has a third-year and a fourth-year working together. On a daily basis we were seeing about 200 to 220 patients.”
Farkas said that Covid caused dramatic changes on campus, with students being sent home, virtual learning going into effect and the clinic being closed for general patient care and new patients.
“We did not abandon our patients, but it was basically a skeleton crew that was treating patients. We were seeing maybe seven to 10 patients a day for emergencies and at the same time we instituted a teledentistry-type visit where we would screen patients for their problems and if those problems needed to be treated in person we would bring them in and we would have faculty doing the treatments,” Farkas said. “June 18 we reopened at 16.5% capacity.”
Farkas said that the clinic expanded to 33% capacity and he expects it to be at 50% capacity though Labor Day, perhaps holding at that level until the end of the year.
The clinical facility is divided into six clinical practice units, a pediatric dentistry practice, an oral and maxillofacial surgery practice, an endodontic practice and student workrooms. The College of Dental Medicine itself is in a 249,000-square-foot, six-story building at 19 Skyline Drive in Hawthorne.
“Everything has been reworked and rethought. We are skipping chairs. We have 109 chairs so at 50% we would have 54 chairs and that”™s where we are going to end up at this point. At the same time, the way people travel within the facility has been reorganized,” Farkas said.
“There”™s one-way travel, there”™s screening upon entering, social distancing within the facility, the student lounge is closed, we”™ve closed down certain rooms where we could not accomplish social distancing, the simulation lab is being used at one-third capacity so instead of having 115 students at a time we are having 35 or 36 at a time.”
Farkas said that when administrators started talking about reopening they were extremely concerned about the educational robustness of the program the clinic would provide at reduced patient capacity.
“Previously a student would see one patient in the morning and one patient in the afternoon. We”™ve added faculty so they”™re able to increase that efficiency to two patients per morning, two patients per afternoon,” Farkas said.
“So, automatically, if you”™re at 50% and you”™re seeing double the number of patients, the student experiences are being doubled, which is basically equal to pre-Covid. Same thing with the simulation lab. We”™re able to do more in the same amount of time because we”™ve added more faculty. At no other time on our history has the student-to-faculty ratio been better than it is now.”
Farkas reported that on one recent day, there were 91 patients seen in the dental clinic. At 100% capacity pre-Covid, they typically were seeing 200 a day.
Dental student Blake Artuso, 27, a Pleasantville native, told the Business Journal, “At some point we have to graduate to working on real people and that happens in the third year, and that”™s were I”™m at. There are all of these procedures that we”™ve done on dummies. Last week I did a couple of examinations. I have a friend who did a root canal already and I have a friend who did a couple of fillings.”
He said that when in the clinic, he wants to make sure that the patients are at ease and introduces himself as a student doctor along with his fourth-year dental student partner Trung Nguyen and the Touro faculty member who is their clinical practice leader and an experienced dentist.
“With people, there are so many things you have to take into account; their medical history, their dental history, if they”™re anxious or not. There are a ton of additional variables when you”™re working on an actual human being,” Artuso said.
“We are educating the next generation of dentists and integral to that is our educational process, which is the first two years all the students basically go through 1,500 hours of simulation laboratory where they learn to do dentistry on mannequins. At the same time, they take basic science courses like physiology, biochemistry, anatomy, and so they learn the basics,” Farkas explained.
“They develop a base of knowledge that they can use to treat patients. For the last two years dental school is essentially using that knowledge and treating live patients. We have high-level faculty who supervise these students and the patients are being treated at 20% to 50% less than what it would cost in the real world.”
Farkas said that the new normal with Covid being a reality includes more emphasis on the use of personal protective equipment, more regulation and follow up and more conscientiousness about infection control.
“When you dig down a little bit you see that the treatments are basically the same, the students are being educated and they”™re happy. We constantly take surveys on that and we are gratified to see that things are working out,” Farkas said.
“We are hoping there will be a day in the near future when we”™ll be able to go back to 100% but really nobody knows. We are operating in a way that we feel that a student that we graduate can succeed anywhere in any program in any office in the world.”
