COVID- 19 OPERATIONAL UPDATES
When Covid-19 Stay-at-Home Orders were put into place, there were many recommendations given to us by the CDC and our dental associations. However, due to the constant changes to these recommendations, a decision was made to close our office for 4 months to make sure our office and staff were fully prepared for reopening. We were one of the last dental offices to reopen. We did every thing possible to make our office safe for your child’s next visit. I hope that this shows our commitment to your family’s health and safety.
The following is an update on some of the changes we have made:
- We have done a renovation that included removing all of the carpet in our office, including the waiting room and hallways. This allows us to sanitize the floors daily.
- We have placed a total of 12 air purifiers (each covers 5000 sq ft/hour) with medical grade H13 filters that can remove 99.9% of particles up to 0.1 microns in size.
- Our office has the advantage of having 10 individual operatory/dental cleaning rooms. Other offices are likely to have open bays in which there are multiple dental chairs in 1 open room.
- Our office is equipped with 8 “extra oral suction devices.“ This is a very important tool to reduce aerosols during certain procedures or anytime a drill is used.
- We are fortunate to have 2 Solea Dental Laser Machines. These machines are able to reduce the production of aerosols dramatically. The laser can replace the drill for filling procedures.
- Each of our 10 dental rooms are equipped with the Isolite System by Zyris. This is another tool used to reduce saliva splatter and aerosols during certain procedures.
- There are custom built plexiglass barriers around our entire receptionist desks.
- All of our assistants and dental hygienists will wear masks and face shields while working on your child
- Dental chairs are covered with disposable chair covers and are replaced after every patient.
- All chairs in the hygiene rooms will be wiped down between patients.
- We have added a total of 18 wall mounted and stand up hand sanitizing stations in our office.
- Every employee will have a temperature check each morning.
- We will temperature check every patient or person who enters our office and will not allow any person who exhibits any cold symptom to enter our office.
- We have replaced all of our operatory and receptionist countertops with a non-porous stone to make sanitizing these surfaces much easier.
- We will have parents wait in their cars and not in our waiting room. We have removed all magazine racks and toys in our office.
- We have the option to perform “teledentistry” for emergency procedures or infant frenectomy consults. Teledentistry is used through our dental software and is a live interactive video very much like Facetime. We are able to use a live video to attempt to diagnose dental problems while in your own home. The following is an example of where Teledentistry may be applicable. A patient has a permanent tooth erupting on the side of the baby tooth. In this situation, we would typically schedule an emergency exam appointment to determine if we would need to take the baby tooth out. If it is determined that the baby tooth extraction is recommended, another appointment on a different day would usually be required. With Teledentistry, we are able to diagnose this from a patient’s home which will save 1 trip to the dental office, preventing the parent from taking off work, saving time, etc.
We hope that you see these changes as a reflection of our commitment to our families. If there are any questions or concerns about the above, please feel free to call our office. We look forward to seeing you, and most of all, value your trust and loyalty.
In Good Oral Health,
Dr. Derek Tom
