Splitting the dental teams has been one of the changes made at Dental on Keppel in what has been a most unusual time.

But the changes have allowed the team to continue seeing clients to ensure they remain vigilant with their dental health.

"We don't work with half of the rest of the practice so that if we inadvertently get any symptoms or have to be isolated for any suspected case exposure, then the people who were in here when we're not here can still work," Dr Emma Travis said.

"So we're not all here together."

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Dental on Keppel, like other dental operations around the city, faced a particular challenge at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic because of how closely staff needed to work with their patients.

"We've always cleaned the surgery rooms, according to the protocol, to within an inch of its life, but that has translated now into the whole clinic," Dr Travis said.

"We try to make sure we don't have patients here at the same time, so we're spacing the appointments right out.

"We have extra environmental cleaning that we do between patients - not just on a daily basis, but all the time.

"We're thinking we'll be doing that until we're told otherwise or the risk goes away.

"That question is [how long is a] a piece of string as to how long that will happen for. I guess the truth is that I don't see us going back in the same way we were for a very long time."

Dental on Keppel has, until very recently, only been able to see people who had a toothache or an emergency or pain, but the restrictions have been eased to allow more work, including examinations and hand scaling.

"We try to work preventatively, so we were seeing a lot of people for preventative maintenance. That's all gone," Dr Travis said.

"So all those people are waiting for us to say the restrictions are lifted to the point where we can see you and do something, but people have had to be very understanding.

"I see a day where we're going to be very busy if that does lift."

Dr Travis said a lasting effect of the coronavirus pandemic was likely to be a greater awareness in the community of the importance of personal hygiene.