05/28/2020
OPENING 6/1/2020
Dear Dental Comfort Associate Family,
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 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.
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:
We have blocked seats in the reception area to promote safe social distancing as well as installed a protective acrylic barrier at the check-out counter. In addition, our front desk team will be wearing surgical masks.
• When scheduling appointments over the phone, we are utilizing screening questions to identify patients at higher risk and possibly rescheduling them at a later date.
• We are asking that patients minimize the number of companions that accompany them to their appointments in order to reduce the number of people in the reception and treatment areas.
• When you arrive at our office, we ask that you remain in your vehicle and call us with the patient's first and last name to let us know, you or they are here. We will call you back when we are ready to see you and request that the patient enter the building for their appointment.
• Anyone entering our office will be required to wear a face covering over their mouth and nose.
• We will be using a touchless infrared thermometer to take each patient and companion's temperature. Any patient with a temperature above 100.4 degrees will be asked to reschedule the appointment. Taking it one step further, our team members and myself will be screened daily upon arrival to the office, ruling out fever or symptoms of illness.
• 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 magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• Our clinical team members will be wearing surgical or N-95 masks along with face shields and protective gowns depending on the type of procedure scheduled.
• During procedures, we are using additional high volume (HV) suction to reduce the amount of aerosols generated.
• We have purchased air purifiers from Medify Air with HEPA-Rx filters that meet or exceed the guidelines for general surgery applications. A six stage filtration and sterilization process remove particles including odors, gases, mold, allergens, and viruses. These units will be utilized in both the front desk & treatment areas. In addition to the air purifiers in each individual operatory we are also installing a centralized HVAC filter which will trap allergens, bacteria and viruses among other things.
We look forward to seeing you again starting 6/1/2020 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 office number (201)246-1233 or visit our website at web address.
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. Saad and the Team
