Our community has been through a lot over the past 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. 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 your 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 patients and staff safe. Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Center 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 agencies’ recommendations.You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example: 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.
We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area for you to use as needed.
You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, since those items are difficult to disinfect.
Our operatories will be equipped with air purifiers/disinfectants for increased protection.
High speed external evacuations will be in use for all hygiene appointments.
Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you are offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
We will also do our best to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time. This will mean that unless absolutely necessary, patients should present to appointments alone.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.