At Piedmont Dental by Design, your health and the health of our staff are of the utmost importance. While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your safety, oral health and overall well-being.
Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice, as you may have seen during your prior visits to our office. Our infection control processes are made so that when you receive care, it’s both safe and comfortable. In addition to the already in place infection controls, we’ve added significant new protocols and procedures based on Covid-19 guidelines.
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.
When you come in for your appointment, you will experience several changes that are designed to protect both patients and staff. These changes will be the “new normal” for now. Some examples:
- Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office as well as having your temperature taken with a touchless forehead thermometer.
- We will ask you to call us when you have parked near our office. We ask for you to wait in your car until we invite you up so there will be no waiting time in the reception area.
- We ask that you come to your appointment alone: if you need some assistance, please have your companion wait outside or in your car after we get you set up in the treatment room.
- You will be required to wear a mask or face covering to enter our facility. Please bring your own. You will also have your temperature taken.
- We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
- You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer beverages, snacks, magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect and allow for cross contamination.
- Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
In the clinical area, there will also be some changes you may notice.
- Increased PPE on the clinical team. Under an abundance of caution, you will see we are pretty covered up.
- Due to the extra layers, you might find the clinical area cool. Please bring a sweater for comfort.
- Extra equipment to handle aerosols: extra oral vacuums and air purifiers that make sue the air throughout the office is clean and pure.
- Use of a hospital grade hypochlorus acid for surface and air disinfection.
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 symptoms, we recommend you cancel and reschedule your dental appointment. Some illness and symptoms include:
- a cold or the flu
- fever or nausea
- severe headaches or body aches
- muscle or stomach pain, chest pain or difficulty breathing
- vomiting or diarrhea
- active tuberculosis (TB)
- mumps, measles, chickenpox
- other contagious disease
- 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 (ex. China, Italy, Iran, South Korea) 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.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us immediately. The below links provide additional information regarding the coronavirus:
We look forward to seeing you again and are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps we are taking to keep you, and every patient, safe in our practice.
For questions or to make an appointment, please call our office at 510-652-2911, visit our website at www.piedmontdentalbydesign.com, or email: info@piedmontdentalbydesign.com
Thank you for being our patient. We miss you and value your trust and loyalty. We look forward to welcoming you back, along with all our patients, neighbors and friends.
We are looking forward to seeing your beautiful smiles!
- Jill Martenson, DDS and the entire team at Piedmont Dental by Design