COVID Information
Keeping You Safe
We are so happy to welcome back all of our patients and be back open for business!
For the safety of all of our patients and our team, we have enhanced our process to be sensitive to the continued concerns regarding COVID-19.
Our Ongoing Standard of Care:
For your protection, we have always held ourselves to hospital level standards and beyond with our sterilization and infection control protocols. This includes:
- Medical grade disinfection between every patient
- Use of one-time disposable materials whenever possible
- Paperless records and digital x-rays to prevent transfer of infection by limiting unneeded products in treatment rooms
- Purified water in our closed waterline system
- Medical grade air filters in the treatment rooms and reception areas
- Biological monitoring of all equipment and water supply
- Ensuring all surfaces of our operatories are able to be thoroughly disinfected between each patient by limiting the amount of supplies in each room, having flooring and not carpet in operatories and keeping supplies properly stored away. Our appointment times have always allowed us to properly sterilize instruments and clean rooms between patients.
- We will be fogging all of our rooms and waiting areas multiple times a day
- Additionally, we have been utilizing a negative pressure vacuum system for many years to control aerosols both you and our team are exposed to inevery operatory and this will continue to be used during every treatment as always. Studies have shown our regular vacuum systems remove 90% of airborne particle alone but we have chosen to take this a step further with this system.
Before your appointment, we will be contacting our patients to verify you have not had any of the following:
- Cough or runny nose
- Exposure to anyone with exposure to COVID-19 within the last 14 days
- Fever within the last 48 hours
In Preparation for Your Appointment:
- We have digital forms available to be completed in the comfort of your own home before you arrive for your appointment to reduce the time in the reception area
- We will call or text you when we are prepared to bring you back for your appointment so you can remain waiting in your car
- We have both online scheduling and payment portals available for you convenience to eliminate unnecessary in person visits to the office
During Your Appointment:
- Only patients with a scheduled appointment will be permitted in the office
- Your temperature will be taken before your treatment to ensure it is under 100.4
- We will be pre-screening patients for any of the above-mentioned symptoms
- All patients will be observing 6 feet of social distancing while in the office
- Patients are required to wear a mask or face covering when outside of their operatory
- All magazines and coffee bar selections will be removed from the reception area
- All surfaces will be disinfected between each patient in common areas
- All patients will rinse with an antiseptic mouthwash at the beginning of their appointment
Safety Questions? We Have Answers!
No but we want to go the extra mile with added protection to make sure we are keeping all of our patients and team as safe as possible!
We are taking every precaution required by the CDC and exceeding those recommendations to ensure the safety of our patients and our team. This includes pre-screening patients, using personal protective equipment, medical grade disinfectants, purified water, biological monitoring, medical grade air filters, disposable materials and antiseptic mouthwash for all of our patients in our digital, paperless office.
A negative pressure system prevents contamination of air flow between one area to another. It allows air to flow into an area but does not allow that air to escape or to travel to other areas. We have had a vacuum system in place for more than 10 years now that keeps air contained in our operatories, both for the safety of our patients and our team. While many facilities have not been able to gain access to this technology, we are fortunate that our operatories are already equipped with it.
Biological monitoring is an added measure we take to ensure all of our sterilizers, water lines and protocols are doing what they are intended to do - keeping our patients safe by providing sterile supplies for you to receive treatment with. We have multiple levels of testing that verify all of our equipment is working properly, our water remains uncontaminated and our packaging keeps the instruments prepared specifically for your treatment pathogen free.
A medical grade air filter can remove 99.73% of particles in the air, including viruses and bacteria. While not mandated, we have made the choice to purify the air in our practices as an added level of security for our patients and our team to provide as healthy of an environment for everyone as possible.
All surfaces of our operatories are thoroughly disinfected between every patient. All of our instruments are cleaned in an ultrasonic machine and sterilized after every patient. Each individual packet is opened right before your treatment. We use one time use disposable materials whenever possible. Only necessary team members are invited into your room. We have a closed line purified water system, a negative pressure vacuum system and weekly biological monitoring of our sterilizers.
A paperless office reduces the amount of materials that could be contaminated, transferred outside of an operatory and cause potential infections. We limit the amount of materials in our rooms at all times to allow all surfaces to be properly cleaned and disinfected. We additionally offer online scheduling, text communication, web chat, and payment portals to reduce unnecessary trips to the office allowing you to manage your treatment with us from the safety of your home.
We have quarterly meetings with our entire team to make sure everyone is apprised of the latest recommendations and understand the proper protocols needed. We have a training platform that addresses this topic specifically and annually complete a state approved course regarding infection control, sterilization protocols and OSHA laws. This year we are all renewing our certification twice to be sure we are more than prepared to care for all of our patients.
Hypochlorous acid is an osidant in humans and animals that is part of our immune system. This acid can be used as a disinfectant and is the most effective in the chlorine family. HOCL is 80 to 120 times more effective than sodium hypochlorite so we will be using this as part of operatory disinfectant process.
Fogging is the process of cleansing the air and all surfaces of a room with a disinfectant. It injects steam into an area to clean all of the surfaces with droplets. We will be using HOCL in our foggers as part of our room sterilization process multiple times throughout the day.
Pre-rinsing is rinsing your mouth with an antimicrobial mouth rinse right before your appointment to reduce the amount of bacteria in your mouth, protecting both yourself and our team by reducing the out put of aerosols during your appointment.
One of the signs of a COVID-19 infection an be a low grade fever, 100.4 or higher according to the CDC guidelines. As we know, people can be infected without any symptoms so screening both our team and patients is another step we are taking to help prevent the spread of COVID.