We hope you and your family are in good health and have remained safe during this challenging time. We have all been through an unprecedented experience and we are looking forward to returning to more normal and routine days. While many things in our world have changed, Dr. Bhatta and team members remain committed to ensuring your visit to our practice is a safe and comfortable experience.
A safe, secure and sterile environment has always been a key pillar of how we operate our dental practice. It remains one of our top priorities to ensure that we minimize any real or perceived risks of exposure to viruses or contagions. However, considering the recent coronavirus and specific concerns, we have taken additional measures to enhance the existing infection policies, procedures and controls we have in place.
You may not have noticed before, but we have always ensured our practice is fully in compliance with the recommendations of the Provincial and Federal Public Health Agencies, the Provincial Regulatory Colleges and the Canadian Dental Association. We have always remained abreast of developments in this area and often applied more stringent thresholds than required.
As a result of the increased recommendations driven by the current Coronavirus Pandemic, we have enhanced these infection control policies and you may see certain changes at your next appointment.
We have made these changes to help protect our patients and staff, including:
- Temperature or screening checks for patients upon entry of the clinic
- Pre-screening of all patients prior to their appointment and again at the entrance to the office
- Pre-screening of all of our team members on a daily basis
- Hand sanitizer at the front door and throughout the office, as well as disposable face masks that we may ask you to use when you enter the office.
- Our reception area will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys etc., since these items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
- Appointments will be staggered and managed to allow for social distancing between patients and staff
- The number of patients in the practice area will be limited at any given time
- Appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for all clinical and administrative staff, including masks for all team members; N95 (or equivalent) masks, face shields and gowns for the clinical team as required
- Cleaning and disinfection of reception area and restrooms will be done hourly, or as needed
- Extra time scheduled between patients’ appointments to allow thorough cleaning and disinfection of treatment rooms and equipment
We look forward to seeing you again very soon and would be happy to answer any questions you may have. Our focus is on taking appropriate steps to make sure all our patients and team feel safe and comfortable within our practice. Your oral health remains tremendously important to us and we look forward to taking care of you during this challenging time, and well into the future.
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. H.S. Bhatta, and your team at Smiling Creek Dental