29 Ways Beech Dental Is Making Your Next Appointment Safe During the Covid-19 Pandemic
In order to make your visit to Beech Dental safe, our office has been implementing the following procedures throughout the pandemic:Please note: Despite the lengthy list to follow, you will find that our friendly staff will make your visit seem fairly normal.
Throughout this pandemic I have been very heartened and impressed with how understanding, cooperative and mindful patients attending our office have been. We all want to stay healthy, both our patients and staff and it is a team effort.
My staff has been absolutely wonderful in carrying out their roles in a cheerful, dedicated and tireless way. I cannot thank them enough.
Part One: Before Your Appointment:
- Please call ahead to schedule your appointment. We cannot accept walk-in patients.
- When we speak to you over the phone, we will be asking you screening questions to make sure you are in good health before you attend our office.
- If you are feeling unwell please do not attend our office. Call us to reschedule your appointment.
- Please wear a mask when you visit our office. If you do not have a mask we will provide one for you when you arrive.
- We keep our office door locked throughout the day and will let you in individually. This allows us to ask a few screening questions at the door before you enter to confirm you're feeling well.
- When you enter we will provide you with hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use.
- We will remind you to keep your mask on at all times in our office except during treatment.
- You will find our waiting room is sparse. We removed all magazines, books and children's toys to reduce the chance of cross contamination between patients.
- We have removed our coffee maker from the waiting room but be assured after this pandemic is over it will return.
- We will be taking your temperature upon your arrival.
- All of our staff will be wearing masks, gloves and uniforms, even our receptionists.
- Our reception area has plexiglass to help maintain social distance between staff and patients.
- We have reduced the seating capacity in our waiting room, again to allow for plenty of space between patients in our waiting room.
- We are booking patients in a way that keeps the number of patients sitting in our waiting room to a bare minimum. In fact, when patients arrive at our i office, after they have passed our screening questions, we usually bring them directly into a treatment room so that our waiting room stays as empty as possible.
- In the good old days before the pandemic, on Thursdays and Saturdays we would have two hygienists working in the office. However we have reduced our staffing to have only one hygienist at a time working at a time. This reduces the number of patients and staff in the office at any one time.
- We are increasing the number of Saturday's we open each month and are extending our Saturday hours to allow us to provide the same overall access to treatment for our patients.
- When possible we are asking patients to come alone to their appointments to reduce the number of people in our waiting room. We know there will be situations where this will not be feasible. We are just asking that you do your best in this regard.
- All of our office staff are screened daily and will not work if ill. Our staff, including Dr. Shnall have all remained healthy throughout the pandemic however if there is any sign of any of our staff becoming ill they will be asked to get tested for Covid-19 as warranted, self-isolate for two weeks or longer and follow any other Ministry of Health guidelines as necessary before returning to our office to work.
- Our staff are physically distancing throughout the day and we are being mindful to ensure our patients physically distance as well in our office.
Part B During Your Appointment:
20. All of our staff have appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE). Depending on the procedure this may include a gown, face mask (N95 or surgical mask as required), face shield and gloves.
21. Hospital grade gowns are worn over our uniforms and are changed after every patient.
22. We have HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) purifiers in each of our treatment rooms.
23. We are minimizing the number of patients in the office at any one time. We have four treatment rooms and we only book one patient at a time to be treated by one hygienist and one dentist.
24. Before you are treated we will ask you to have a brief 30 second rinse with 1% hydrogen peroxide. It is relatively tasteless.
Part C. After Your Appointment:
25. After your appointment we will escort you to our front desk and ensure that you are able to maintain physical distance in our reception area when checking out.
26. Debit or credit payment is preferred but cash or cheque is accepted, as is direct payment from insurance companies where applicable.
27. We will provide you with hand sanitizer to use before exiting the office.
28. Our staff has been terrific in adapting to the "new normal." Each hour we are sanitizing the washroom and the waiting room, and even more frequently than that as needed.
29. Dental offices in Ontario have stringent sterilization procedures that must be followed. All procedures that we follow have been in place well before the pandemic ever started.
Our staff is very dedicated in ensuring that our instruments are sterilized to the same standard as done in hospitals.
25. After your appointment we will escort you to our front desk and ensure that you are able to maintain physical distance in our reception area when checking out.
26. Debit or credit payment is preferred but cash or cheque is accepted, as is direct payment from insurance companies where applicable.
27. We will provide you with hand sanitizer to use before exiting the office.
28. Our staff has been terrific in adapting to the "new normal." Each hour we are sanitizing the washroom and the waiting room, and even more frequently than that as needed.
29. Dental offices in Ontario have stringent sterilization procedures that must be followed. All procedures that we follow have been in place well before the pandemic ever started.
Our staff is very dedicated in ensuring that our instruments are sterilized to the same standard as done in hospitals.
I know this sounds like a lot but I think you will find your visit to our is pretty routine, despite the heightened safety awareness.
We understand that this is a very trying time for many, many people and we are here to help
.If you have any questions, concerns or thoughts you would like to share about our office procedures during this pandemic feel feel free to contact us by phone or by email.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeff Shnall
Beech Dental
Tel 46-691-2886
Email: BeechDental@gmail.com
We understand that this is a very trying time for many, many people and we are here to help
.If you have any questions, concerns or thoughts you would like to share about our office procedures during this pandemic feel feel free to contact us by phone or by email.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jeff Shnall
Beech Dental
Tel 46-691-2886
Email: BeechDental@gmail.com