Your health and the health of our staff are of the utmost importance. When you come in for an appointment, we are asking you to follow certain precautionary procedures to avoid crowds in the waiting room.
When You Come In
Please come alone. Do not bring your spouse, children, or any other people, unless you need assistance. Please wear a mask when entering the office. No gloves are permitted. You will be asked to dispose of them once you enter the clinic. Patients will be asked to complete a COVID-19 screening form upon arrival and temperature and oxygen saturation checks will be taken in accordance with CDC and American Dental Association recommended guidelines. Patients will also need to hand sanitize before entering the treatment rooms.
Due to concerns about patient and employee safety, we ask that all patients experiencing flu-like symptoms (fever, cough, sore throat, nausea, vomiting, and difficulty breathing) to reschedule their appointments. Do not come in if you have a fever or cough, or have been exposed to someone who has COVID-19. If you have recovered from Covid-19, you will need to be symptom-free for at least 14 days and must be able to provide medical clearance from a physician before being seen.
If you arrive early, we may ask that you wait in your car until we are ready to see you.
Steps We Are Taking
Even before Covid-19, we have always complied with strict OSHA-mandated protocols to maintain a highly sterile environment within our dental offices. These guidelines were created to safeguard against the spread of bloodborne pathogens and severely contagious diseases such as HIV, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, and measles, and they are equally effective in managing the spread of Influenza and Covid-19. Below is a summary of the steps currently in place to ensure patient and employee safety:
Employee Health Screening:
All employees and doctors undergo health history screenings before commencing employment. In addition, we strictly enforce policies that require employees suffering from communicable illnesses to stay home from work until they have clearance by a physician to return and have received supervisor approval. At this time, employees are required to wear masks at all times. Employees are also having their temperatures monitored daily prior to starting their shift.
Sterilization Procedures:
We are adhering to guidelines established by CDC that state that all body fluids are treated as infectious because patients with bloodborne infections can be asymptomatic or unaware that they are infected. This includes body fluids in airborne droplets from coughs or sneezes. Strict surface sterilization procedures are followed to clean and disinfect all operatory surfaces between patients and, after each use, all dental instruments are cleaned and heat sterilized in a steam autoclave machine in individual sterile pouches. Even before the impact of Covid-19, our office has always done a weekly spore test to monitor our autoclaves are operating at optimal conditions.
Common Area Disinfecting: As a result of the current Covid-19 concern, we have taken added precautions in the common areas. All magazines and pamphlets have been removed. Lobby surfaces and patient restrooms are disinfected every hour. This includes a thorough wipe down of all hard surfaces, such as door handles, doorknobs, tables, chairs, and front office counters with a disinfectant wipe. In addition, patients are being advised to practice social distancing in our lobby area or wait in their cars if preferred. According to the CDC, the most important steps we all can take to avoid infection from airborne diseases are frequent handwashing with soap and water and regular cleansing of highly-used surfaces with disinfectant. We recommend that all our patients take these basic precautions.
If you are healthy, there’s no need to cancel your regularly scheduled dental appointment.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately. The below links provide additional information regarding the Covid-19:
Our team will continue to monitor the situation and provide updated information when warranted. Thank you for your patronage.