Dear Valued Patients,
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 we are all 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, and goes beyond, 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. We do this to make sure that our infection control procedures are current and adhere to each agencies’ recommendations.
You may see some changes when it is time for your next appointment. We made these changes to help protect our patients and staff—
- We have installed two safe and effective hospital grade air filters in each of our treatment rooms and waiting area. These air purifiers employ technologies to disinfect the air and remove harmful pathogens.
- We are using suction units while drilling or scaling to intake and disinfect aerosols, which are inherent to these procedures.
- We require all staff to continuously wear a face mask during the day. We also require all patients to wear a face mask, until they are seated in the treatment room. If you are in need of a face mask, please call the front desk and we would be glad to meet you at the entrance.
- We have purchased and use all possible personal protective equipment. This not only protects our staff, but as we change them between each patient, this protects our patients as well.
- We wipe, with hospital grade disinfectant, all surfaces between each patient. We then cover all possible surfaces with disposable barriers between each patient.
- When possible, our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. Once in the office, you will have your temperature taken and asked those same questions.
- We have hand sanitizing stations throughout the office that we ask you to use during your visit.
- Unfortunately, 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.
- Whenever possible, appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. We ask that you phone us from the parking lot before coming in to ensure you come in contact with as few other patients as possible.
- We will do our best to allow greater time between patients to reduce waiting times for you, as well as to reduce the number of patients in the reception area at any one time.
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, safe in our practice. To make an appointment, please contact us or call our office at 914-666-9263.
Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to seeing you and your family soon.
With warm & best regards,
Dr. Vece, Julie, Jhoanny, Carla and Devin.