To Our Dear Patients,
We hope this post 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 previous 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 follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). We follow the activities of these agencies so that we are up-to-date on any new rulings or guidance that may be issued. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.
Dental treatment rooms will continue to be cleaned with anti-bacterial and anti-virucidal cleaners before and after each visit. We use barrier protection (ie gloves, coverings) to prevent germs from spreading when we touch things. All instruments are heat sterilized and used only on you before they are sterilized again. In addition to using many disposable products, we wear Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for the safety of our patients as well as ourselves.
You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff. For example:
- Our office will communicate with you before your visit to ask some important screening questions.
- Remote check-in. Please stay in the safety of your car and call us when you arrive so as to avoid being in our waiting room with other people. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you arrive as well as have your temperature and oxygen levels evaluated. Please, if you are not feeling well, call to reschedule. We will not treat patients who are ill or show signs of illness.
- We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use to clean your hands and cell phone when you enter the office. Additionally, we have air purifiers, Plexiglass barriers where possible, and will minimize paper transactions. Receipts for payment and other paperwork will be sent by email/mail when practical. Person to person contact will be kept to a minimum.
- You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment. It is imperative that you be on time for your appointment to help minimize wait times.
- 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.
Our office is going above and beyond the the REQUIRED steps mandated with utilization of both intra-oral and extra-oral aerosol removal devices. Additionally, we have improved our air filtration with purification devices, with Medical Grade HEPA Filters These additional measures, in addition to our regular infection control procedures, make our office one of the safest places you can be.
WE WANT YOU TO ALWAYS FEEL COMFORTABLE AND SAFE AT OUR OFFICE. In addition, we want our team members to feel safe in our work environment. As we begin performing routine dental care, you can be assured that our entire team has been been fully trained and kept up to date with the latest information and research on how to best are for our patients. We have implemented these protocols to keep ALL of us safe during your visit. ONE THING YOU CAN BE CERTAIN OF, IS THAT GOING TO THE DENTIST IS, AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, SAFE!
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. To make an appointment, please call our office at (203) 743-5600 or email us at office@bethelgentledental.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.
Sincerely,
Dr. SanGiacomo, Dr. Perrotta, and Team
