Our community has been through a lot over the last few months during this COVID-19 pandemic, 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 and dental health.
For the protection of all our patients and staff due the recent outbreak of coronavirus, we are requesting the following:
- If you have an illness or are exhibiting any symptoms, we request you cancel and reschedule your dental appointment.
- Please notify our staff before your appointment if you or someone you are in close contact with have recently traveled to one of the countries with large outbreaks of COVID-19 or if you have been exposed to someone else who was diagnosed with COVID-19 or who was quarantined as a precaution.
If you are healthy, there’s no need to cancel your regularly scheduled dental appointment.
As you can imagine, you will be observing some changes at your upcoming appointment; and we want to tell you about the extra infection control procedures we have implemented in our practice to help protect and keep our patients and staff safe.
Some of the changes you may see when it is time for your next appointment include:
· Our office will communicate with you beforehand to cover some pre-appointment screening questions.
· You will be asked those same questions again when you arrive at the office for your appointment.
· When you arrive at our office, we ask that you utilize our new curbside waiting to reduce social contact. Please stay in your car and call the front desk (972-423-4595) to let them know that you have arrived. (If you do not arrive by car, or cannot stay in your car, please let us know.) One of our staff will then come to your car where we will take your temperature, cover the screening questions, and escort you to our office and your designated treatment room as soon as possible for your appointment.
· Due to strict scheduling guidelines, we respectfully request that you be on time for your appointment. Please alert us to any dental or other concerns you may have ahead of time.
· We ask that only patients with appointments enter the office, and that you limit companions to only essential people in order to reduce the number of people in the office and treatment rooms. Companions entering the office will also be screened for signs and symptoms of COVID-19. If others accompany the patient, if possible we ask they wait in the car.
· You will be requested to wear a face mask/covering to your appointment.
· We can unfortunately no longer offer blankets or headphones for your appointment. But, you are welcome to bring your own.
· We have hand sanitizer at the front desk that we ask you to use when first entering the office. You will also find additional hand sanitizer throughout our office for you to use as needed.
· You may see that we are not utilizing our waiting room in order to help with social distancing, and because this area is more difficult to clean and disinfect.
· While in our offices, please follow the general COVID-19 guidelines. For example, try and keep 6 feet from others when possible. Utilize appropriate hand hygiene (e.g., frequently using hand sanitizer and washing hands thoroughly with soap for 20 seconds; avoiding face touching), and respiratory hygiene/cough etiquette (e.g., cough into your elbow).
· Appointments will be managed to try to allow for social distancing between patients. Therefore, you may be asked to alter your original appointment time; and fewer options may be available for scheduling your appointment. We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you and to allow for social distancing.
At any time during the 2 days following your appointment, please call our office and report any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 that you experience or anyone in your family or close contacts experience, and any COVID-19 test results
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately. The below links provide additional information regarding the coronavirus: