Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and all of us are looking forward to resuming our normal habits and routines. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety.
This week, we begin a slow, strategic reopening of our dental office.Over the next weeks and months, as the situation continues to evolve, we will make changes as necessary until we all reach our new normal.
We wanted to update all of you on the additional steps we are taking to ensure the safety of our team and our patients. Our team has been undergoing extensive training and re-education over the last few weeks, keeping up on new recommendations and guidelines, so we could be ready to serve you.
We currently have the appropriate protective equipment for our team; masks, face shields, jackets and gowns to see our patients; however, appointments will be more limited than normal to allow for extra disinfection and appropriate physical distancing of our patients.
Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you may have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it's both safe and comfortable. We want to tell you about the infection control procedures we follow in our practice to keep our patients and our team safe.
Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies daily so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies' recommendations.
The best way we can protect ourselves and protect our patients is to keep COVID-19 out of our office.We are taking the temperature of each of our team members every morning as she arrives to work as well as asking each team member to self-monitor for any symptoms. Any team member with a fever, symptoms, or ill family members will be tested before returning to work.If you have tested positive for COVID-19, have any symptoms of COVID-19, such as fever or respiratory symptoms, or have been around anyone that has tested positive for COVID-19, we ask you to reschedule your appointment until you have been medically cleared.
Below are some additional changes we have made to help protect our patients and staff.
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You'll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office. Annoying, but necessary!
- We ask you to call our office from your car when you arrive to check in. At this time, only patients may enter the office unless absolutely necessary.If you need assistance, please let us know and a team member will meet you at the door to assist you.
- Upon entering the office, we ask that you use hand sanitizer.
- Each patient will have their temperature taken upon arrival with a no contact thermometer.Anyone will a temperature over 100 degrees will not be seen.
- Once seated, you will be asked to use a mouth rinse containing hydrogen peroxide to oxidize and help break down viruses.
- You may see that our reception area will no longer offer magazines, children's toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- All common areas will be sanitized between patients.
- We have added extra disinfection steps for treatment rooms and air purification devices.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for physical distancing between patients.
- We are allowing greater time between patients to allow optimal times for our additional disinfection steps to be taken.
- If you do not feel comfortable coming in for your appointment, please call.
- We will be strategically rescheduling appointments over the next several weeks.
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we take to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice.