Dear Patients,
We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. Our community has been through a lot over the last 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 you 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 has always followed infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Washington Industrial Safety and Health Act (WISHA). We follow the activities of these agencies to ensure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.
Our standard sanitation protocols have always included sterilization and disinfection of all treatment rooms, equipment, and instruments between each and every patient. We also go above and beyond the requirements of the above agencies by closely monitoring the quality of our waterlines with ProEdge Dental Water Labs (www.proedgedental.com). In addition to the high standards we have always followed, you will now see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff.
When you arrive please enter in the front of the building through the glass door (next to Penelope the pig).
We are asking all patients to wear masks while in the office (excepting during treatment of course!)
We kindly request that you apply hand sanitizer provided by Your Dentist upon entering the office.
We are screening all patients and staff members’ temperature immediately upon entering the office.
You will see sneeze guards at the front desk points of contact to reduce transmission.
We have added HEPA air filtration units (www.levoit.com/allproducts/core300-true-hepa-air-purifier) in every operatory to keep the air clean of viruses and bacteria.
In addition to our normal disinfection protocols in all the treatment rooms, other surfaces such as desks, counters and door handles will also be thoroughly sanitized multiple times throughout the day.
Our waiting room will not be offering magazines, children’s toys, books, etc., since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
Any guests that accompany patients to their appointments will be asked to wait outside of the office. Exceptions will be made only for children or those who require assistance, and those patients will be limited to one guest.
Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
We will also be offering virtual consultations for our patients of record who may not be able to come in to the office for an appointment. This temporary service will be scheduled after regular business hours and offered Monday through Friday at 7pm and Saturday mornings at 8am, 9am, and 10am. If you are worried about leaving your house, are infected with Covid-19, or can’t make it into the office for any other reason, please feel free to give us a call and we will be very happy to set up a virtual consultation appointment for you!
Thank you for being our patient. 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. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.
Sincerely,
Drs. Du & Szabo and Team