Gregory A Pucel DDS

Did you hear about the dentist who married the manicurist? It didn't work out. They fought tooth and nail.Did you hear about the dentist who married the manicurist? It didn't work out. They fought tooth and nail.

Our governments are taking action with both a stimulus plan and the stay at home orders. Others states are invoking more Draconian measures where you cannot leave the house unless you considered in an Essential job. This is designed to flatten the curve so that the medical system doesn’t go into overwhelm. These are quick fixes. But so far all the effort is short term quick fixes. We are doing a 100 meter dash in a marathon race. How long will our population agree to be in ...self imposed lockdown? I know we are stalling for time but my research shows that the likelihood of a safe effective vaccine is over a year away. We still need to be prudent and most importantly stay healthy supporting your immune system to stave off this bug if you are exposed. A couple of good podcasts on that.... https://podcasts.apple.com//living-beyond-120/id1318912042

I believe that Dr Fauci (who is likely the most famous person in the USA) is saying that this virus has a 1% death rate of those that are infected. Is that accurate. I’m not sure. I will attempt to put the death rate into perspective in the next couple of posts In the attached podcast Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, addresses this. Since China initially suppressed any reporting on this, it is likely the virus arrived here in November. C...ertainly by January. It is highly likely that a bunch of people had COVID and thought it to be the common flu. A patient, who is also a hospital healthcare worker, told me an older gentleman had been in the hospital for two weeks with pneumonia before they thought to test him for COVID. He was positive Basically many of us may already have antibodies to this bad boy and be immune. The current PCR test only checks for live virus presence but not for previous exposure and antibodies. If a significant portion of the population has already been exposed and are immune that 1% death rate is much much less https://podcasts.apple.com//uncommon-knowled/id1378389941

First this isn’t the Apocalypse. The NIH reported that the virus doesn’t live long outside of a host/person. It usually lasts a few hours on surfaces. 24 hours on cardboard and 2-3 days on plastic and stainless. That being said we may need to temporarily modify how we shop to mitigate any potential issues. Again what are the odds that an infected person touched your can of green beans that you are buying within the last 24 hours. ALMOST ZERO. Here is an well thought out article on diminishing your personal risk https://apple.news/AlmtCtzWfQ4Wo2u11kls13A

This COVID 19/ Coronavirus/SARS virus has taken our country by the throat. I have decided to use my social platform to help to keep my friends, family and patients as healthy and safe as possible. We are besieged by a tidal wave of information, disinformation and hyperbole and hype. I have been doing a deep dive into COVID 19 and sharing my research with my staff. This is a pernicious virus but certainly not unprecedented. We are prudent to take precautions but the media is... creating a feeding frenzy of fear and panic inthe public. They in turn are forcing the politicians to act. We are taking unprecedented reaction to a pandemic that is not unprecedented. I am not taking this pandemic lightly and I am personally taking the necessary precautions but perhaps some of these links and posts may provide help and perspective

March 23, 2020 What a difference a week makes. St. Louis County issued an executive stay-at-home order that started at 12:01AM today, March 23, 2020. This is of course to slow the spread of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) and not to overwhelm the medical system. Reading the order states that Dental Offices constitute an Essential business and...... "C.1. Essential businesses may continue necessary activities so long as they comply, to the maximum extent possible, with Social Distancing Requirements for both employees and members of the public, including but not limited to customers in line. All Essential Businesses are strongly encouraged to stay open." Yet, verbally we dentists are hearing that we need to suspend all non-essential and elective procedures. Yes, we are confused too. So, prudence dictates that in order to flatten the curve via social distancing, we are currently suspending all non-emergency dental procedures. Basically, ALL appointments are currently cancelled certainly for the next two weeks through April 3. And with the situation changing day by day we will carefuly monitor to see if we need to cancel everything until the order ends on April 22. We will attempt to cancel all appointments off of our computer so that you will NOT receive a false reminder, but if our appointment reminder system isn't effective coordinating with our appointment computer, then you may receive some reminders in error. Of course, if you have an emergency, we will do our best to serve you. Please call 636-391-1911. Thank you Be safe and stay healthy, C. Lee Row DDS & Gegory A. Pucel DDS

We currently live in interesting times. This current COVID-19 (Coronavirus ) crisis has many of friends, family and patients confused and fearful. We believe it is important to share with you the following facts. The safety and health of our patients and staff has always been our top priority. We have always met or exceeded the cleaning and sterilization protocols as recommended by the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) and OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration).... However, in light of this current COVID-19 outbreak we have become even more diligent. All frequent contact surfaces such as chairs, tables, counters, door handles are routinely disinfected, cleaned and sanitized throughout the day. We provide our patients with alcohol based hand sanitizers in the reception area as well as within each room. Frequently touched areas are covered with disposable barriers. We wear protective equipment when caring for patients and we disinfect each room before and after all appointment and procedures (e.g. hand washing with antimicrobial soap and water, hand sanitizer, etc). We ask all patients and visitors to notify us in advance if they feel that they are at risk and to take preventative measures for safety of themselves and others. If you are experiencing any symptoms of cold or influenza such as coughing, sneezing, or fever, if you have flown in the last two weeks, or if you have been exposed to anyone with COVID-19, please call our office PRIOR to your appointment and we will reschedule to a later time. We want everyone to be safe and respect the concept of social distancing. Patients are welcome to wait in their cars instead of the waiting room. We wish to continue to provide our services to our patients with the least amount of inconvenience while highly cognizant of the safety of all. We will continue to monitor this fluid situation for our local metropolitan area and will send out more announcements as we learn more. It is crucial that we all work together to do all we can to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Thank you for your trust in us and for your understanding.