Coronavirus Update

Dear Valued Patients and Families, 

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 seeing you again and resuming your orthodontic care. 

While many things have changed, one thing has remained the same: our commitment to your health and safety. Infection control has always been a top priority for our practice. Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). You may see some changes at your next appointment. We made these changes to enhance the protection of our patients and staff.

Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions when you schedule your appointment. Please make us aware of any orthodontic problems such as loose brackets or appliances at that time so we can schedule you appropriately.

​​If you answer yes to any of the following, please do not schedule your appointments for at least two weeks:

​Have you had or been exposed to anyone confirmed with COVID-19 in the past two weeks?

Do you have a fever or felt feverish in the past 1-2 weeks?

Have you had a cough in the past 1-2 weeks?

 

Before arriving to the office each patient must:

Complete the Covid Prescreening Form located on the top bar of the website under "New Patients" and "Online Forms"

Take their temperature before leaving for their appointment, cancel if fever.

Thoroughly brush and floss and then don’t eat before leaving for their appointment.

Be accompanied by no more than one responsible party who will remain in reception area or hallway to minimize the number of people in the office.

Wear facemasks while in the office and building.

 

Welcoming You Back

When you return to the office, you will see the same doctors, same cheerful and dedicated staff, same positive attitude, same focus on respect for others, excellent patient care and outstanding orthodontic treatment, but….there are some important changes….

Appointments

We screen all patients and families online prior to the appointment by requesting they complete the Online Covid Screening Form.

We have reduced the number of appointments and dental chairs to permit more than 6 feet distancing between patients and to limit the number of people in the office.  

We request that only the patient, or if necessary, one adult come for the appointment.  Please do not bring siblings or other people.  We request parents to remain in the reception area and be prepared to schedule the next appointment.  We will update you at the end of the visit.

We are managing appointments to allow for social distancing between patients,  That might mean that you are offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.  Please arrive on time for your appointment, as we will have little flexibility and will need to reschedule you if you are running late. Thank you for your help and understanding.

Patient Protection

We require that patients answer an online Covid Questionaire which we review prior to the appointment.

Staff and Doctors also answer health questions and take their temperature each morning.

We assess each patient and parent and take their temperature with a touchless thermometer before they are accepted for treatment.

We have adjusted our schedule to allow for more time between patients for enhanced social distancing and to permit additional time for increased disinfection and sterilization.

Our building has placed NanoSurface membranes over the contact button on the doors and elevators. This patented material continuously self cleans the contact surfaces.

Our doors remain open so that you do not have to open door handles.

You may notice that our reception area no longer offers magazines, children’s toys, prizes and so forth, since those items are difficult to disinfect. 

We ask you to wash your hands before you come and use the hand sanitizer that you will see throughout the office.

We have installed plexiglass dividers for additional distancing at the front desk and in between the chairs in the treatment area.

We are wearing more equipment to provide enhanced patient and staff protection.  These include CDC and NIOSH approved respirators, masks, faceshields, goggles and gowns. We remain the same friendly and caring healthcare providers underneath all this gear. We wear photo name tags so you can easily identify us as we care for you and your smile.

We ask you to brush and floss before you come to the office as we have removed the toothbrushing station.

We give patients a pretreatment rinse to reduce bacteria and viruses.

We have enhanced the disinfection and cleaning protocol of all surfaces using CDC approved and EPA registered virocidal and bacteriocidal disinfectants.  This has always been our routine, but we have increased the frequency, especially of high touch surfaces.

We have state of the art hospital grade air purifiers by Surgically Clean Air which utlilize a 6 stage filtration process with HEPA-Rx and UV-C filters that clean and freshen the air every 7 minutes, removing 99.998% of particles at 0.1 microns.  We have additional HEPA and UV-C air purifiers to remove additional bacteria, viruses and mold.

We were first in the county to install the specialized ADS Evacuation System which removes aerosols right at the mouth, preventing any droplets from entering the environment.

Every day we fog the office using hypochlorous sanitizing equipment and technology, similar to that used by the airline and restaurant industries.

 

Again, we are focusing on best practices for your safety and good health.

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 and our team, safe and comfortable in our practice. 

Thank you for being our patient and for the privilege of providing your orthodontic care. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to the continuation of your orthodontic treatment with the same warmth, care and expertise you have come to expect from us.

Sincerely, 

 

Dr. DeMarco, Dr. Tilkin and Your Orthodontic Team