17 Things We Are Doing to Keep You and Our Team Safe During COVID-19

We are excited to have the opportunity to welcome you back! Our office has always utilized personal protective equipment (PPE) that has exceeded all the CDC guidelines; however, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic we have instituted additional guidelines and protocols to ensure your safety.

We wanted to share some the changes we’ve implemented from scheduling your appointments and managing your insurance to financial transactions.

For appointments, you will be contacted 24 hours prior to your appointment via phone, text or email and asked a set of health-related questions. It is required that we complete this questionnaire prior to your appointment. We will have to reschedule your appointment if we are unable to complete this step.

Additional policies for your appointment include:

• Personalized arrival procedures to guide you from your car directly to treatment rooms to eliminate contacting surfaces.
• All patients are required to wear a mask upon entering the office.
• Handing washing and hand sanitizing will be required before appointments.
• An oral pre-rinse will be provided for all patients to reduce exposure to germs.
• We will record the temperature of each patient upon entering the office.

Below is a list of some of the enhanced precautions we have taken to protect you in addition to extensive team training on infection control and patient management procedures.

1. Maintain distancing in the reception area for essential caregivers and parents of minors if they cannot wait in a vehicle or outside the clinic.
2. Removed magazines and items that can harbor or transfer germs of any kind. Hand sanitizers will be positioned throughout the clinic.
3. Providing more education materials to enhance your awareness of health issues related to this pandemic.
4. Require hand washing and hand sanitizing before all appointments by our team and by our patients.
5. Require all team members to undergo periodic testing for COVID-19 and antibodies for the earliest detection of exposure should it exist.
6. Record the temperature of every team member each day at beginning and end of work period.
7. Payment arrangements in advance if possible or in treatment room immediately after procedures to avoid delay and allow contactless exit from the appointment.
8. Enhanced operatory disinfection procedures of all surfaces between patients.
9. Ambient air management with HEPA 13 air filtration continuously in treatment rooms and common areas to remove germs from circulating air.
10. Enhanced high vacuum evacuation of all aerosol producing procedures
11. Enhanced operatory disinfection procedures before and after all appointments with mist or fogging devices to access hard to reach places that can be easily missed.
12. New personal protection equipment like visors, surgical caps, gowns, and masks for our doctors and team to provide barriers against the smallest of germs.
13. Introduce protocols to reduce or eliminate airborne aerosols during all dental procedures.
14. Enhanced nightly disinfection procedures of equipment and office fixtures like computers, keyboards, telephones, tablets, chairs, doorknobs, and buttons that may be touched unconsciously.
15. Disinfection of all outside mail and packages that enter the building.
16. Longer appointment times for you to prepare and complete all appointment tasks and duties in the safest and most comprehensive manner.
17. Providing teledentistry services for follow up lab reports, consultations, or communication that can be done online or through video education.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact our staff via email at [email protected] or at 425.354.3138.