COVID-19 Policy/Procedures Update

Our community has been through a lot in the past weeks and 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 our patients and their health and safety.

Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice and you have seen this during your visits to our office. Our infection control processes are designed so that when you receive care, it is both safe and comfortable.

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 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 agency’s recommendations, and we have been and will continue to do this always and throughout this pandemic.

We have made changes to some of our protocols and office procedures to help protect our patients and staff.

For example:

Our office will communicate with you before an appointment to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office for your appointment along with taking your temperature using an Infrared Thermometer.

We have a hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.

We have removed magazines and children’s toys from our waiting room since these items are high-contact and difficult to disinfect. We have also spaced waiting room chairs apart to maintain social distancing.

Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that we offer fewer options for scheduling your appointment in the short-term, but we will closely monitor our schedule and ability to see patients and will consider additional/extended hours in the coming months.

We will do our best to reduce waiting times and may ask you to wait in your car until your appointment time in order to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time. We also request that you let us know if anyone will be accompanying you to your appointment. We may ask that they wait in the car or elsewhere unless they are essential to your care (for example, if you are a parent or guardian accompanying a minor).