New guidelines will not soften blow of Scottish government plans

Patients in Scotland will now be placed on one of two pathways, given the likelihood of them carrying a respiratory illness. It replaces what amounted to a 'one size fits all' approach that has been in place since the outset of the pandemic, which reduced capacity across the service.

Those on the non-respiratory pathway can be managed in line with pre-covid standard infection control precautions for non-aerosol generating procedures. However, for an aerosol generating procedure, enhanced precautions will still be required for non-respiratory patients since pre-appointment PCR testing is not carried out in dentistry. Any patient placed on the respiratory pathway and requiring urgent care will remain subject to enhanced precautions for all procedures, which will include maintaining 'fallow time' gaps of up to an hour between treatments.