COVID-19 INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS
As of May 6th, 2020 we are open for elective dental procedures! Thank you for your patience over past weeks as we have been following the regulations and counsel set forth by our Governor, state dental board, and the ADA. We are excited to announce that we are going to expand our services to include our elective care patients! During the past seven weeks we have postponed all preventive and elective treatment services in our office. We have only been seeing emergency patients to help conserve PPE, keep our patients out of the emergency rooms and to do our part to flatten the curve. We will begin with a "soft opening" starting on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020!
In order to provide the safest environment for our dental family and team, we have not only complied with all new federal state and local requirements, but we have implemented additional new protocols and invested in new equipment exceeding any recommended safety standards. Your safety, along with the safety of our team is our highest priority. As of March 2020, there continues to not be a single documented Covid-19 cluster that came from a dental office setting in the United States. This route of Covid-19 transmission in a dental setting would be between a staff member to a patient or between patient to a staff member. We take our standard precautions seriously in dentistry.
Changes to our already rigorous safety measures include:
1. Additional team training to help our team with understanding the COVID-19 outbreak
2. We are screening all of our team members and patients before they come into our office with screening questions and temperature checks
3. We will have you call or text us when you arrive in the parking lot. We will then ask you screening questions over the phone. When your treatment room is ready we will text or call to let you know when it is your time to come up to our office. We will then use a no touch thermometer to take your temperature.
4. We are drastically reducing our normal office occupancy and increasing social distancing by limiting entrance to patients only (with one parent allowed for children under 10 years). If there needs to be an exception please call or text our office several days before your appointment at 817-370-0065 so that we can make accommodations for you.
5. Dr. Brigati will be treating only one reserved patient at a time on her schedule with extended time for each appointment
6. We will be opening all doors for you and giving you hand sanitizer on your way in and on your way out of our office
7. We are requiring that everyone entering our office wear a protective face covering or a mask. If you do not have a mask we will provide one for you at no charge. This has consistently been our protocol since opening back up in May 2020
8. Our entire team will be wearing N95 respirator or a surgical masks in our office at all times when not directly with patients
9. All of our clinical team that are working with patients will be wearing a N95 mask, a face shield, and a new patient gown with every patient that we treat
10. We will continue to use high volume suction devices to aid in reducing the amount of aerosols created intra-orally from dentistry. These include: Isolight mouth pieces that suction, rubber damns, and HVE mirror suctions that can be used for hygiene appointments.
11. We are utilizing six state of the art medical grade ultra HEPA filters to scrub and clean the air throughout the office
12. We have removed all frequently touched objects like books, magazines, blankets and toys from the office
13. We will be be using our new headsets to coordinate when you leave the office after your appointment.
14. We are working on emailing all consent forms and paperwork to you before your appointment and after your appointment
15. We have frequently touched common areas of the office cleaned and wiped down after each patient leaves the office
16. Each of our treatment rooms have extra oral suction devices that enable us to capture dental aerosols that are created with each appointment. They have HEPA, Carbon and U V light filters in each unit.
17. We have removed all team lunches and changed our hours of treating patients in order to prevent team member to team member transmission
17. Please make sure to bring a sweater to your appointment because the office will be kept at a lower temperature due to the additional PPE that we are wearing
The health and safety of our team and patients remains our primary concern. We can't wait to see you as we navigate our "new normal" for dentistry moving forward. We apologize for any inconveniences that this may cause you.
We look forward to seeing you guys soon and can't wait to get everyone's oral health back on track!
In Summary, just give us a call or a text when you arrive in your car for your appointment. Remember to wear a mask or a facial covering when you enter the office and a sweater if you think that you will be cold in the office.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to call or text our office at 817-370-0065.
We have remained diligent with our infection control policies in our office and will continue to do so until we feel that there is research showing otherwise.
Your oral heath is very important in keeping your immune system strong. Having a strong immune system has been proven to help combat the severity of the symptoms that you can have from Covid-19. We strongly feel that your oral health is directly related to your overall systemic health.
We can't wait to see you soon!
Dr. Brigati and Team