Sher Smiles COVID-19 Safety Protocol

4/28/20

To all of our dear and valued patient families,

We hope this letter finds you and your family in good health. We were excited to hear Governor DeWine’s recent announcement that dental offices can begin to see patients for routine visits starting May 1st. Our community has been through a lot over the last few months, and 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. Our office follows infection control recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and the Ohio State Dental Board (OSDB). 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 the recommendations.

You may expect some changes when it is time for your next appointment. Below is a list of changes you should expect to see. Please do not consider this list to be exhaustive or indefinitely fixed. We will continue to monitor current guidelines as well as best practices for our office and will make any necessary changes.

Scheduling your visit:

• We thank you for your patience as we first schedule our patients who have missed their regularly scheduled appointment during the shutdown. We will try our hardest to have everyone back to their regular appointment schedule as soon as possible.
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling.
• 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. Please do your best to arrive on time for your appointment to help ensure proper patient distancing.
• Virtual appointments: Dr. Sher will continue to offer virtual appointments for patients including: retainer checks, routine aligner checks, questions between appointments, patient’s who do not wish to be seen in-person at this time. Please visit our website at www.SherSmiles.com and click on the “Schedule a virtual consultation” button on the homepage to schedule an appointment.

Prior to your visit:

• Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions when scheduling your upcoming appointment.
• Prior to your first visit back, we will ask you to sign an updated form consenting to treatment for yourself or your child during these times.
• Prior to every visit, we will ask you to complete a health questionnaire for yourself and/or your child.
• All of our staff members will have their temperatures taken upon arriving at work and screened for signs of illness. Anyone exhibiting signs of respiratory illness or a fever will be asked to return home and contact their primary care physician.

Arriving for your visit

• We ask that patients come alone or with 1 guardian into the office. We ask any guardian entering the office to wear an appropriate face mask at all times.
• Except in rare cases, we will ask guardians to remain in the reception area during appointments. Anyone who enters the clinical area, will be asked to fill out a health questionnaire and have their temperature recorded.
• We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office.
• We will record body temperatures for every patient when they arrive.
• Our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• Social distancing will be observed in the clinical and reception areas.

During your visit

• We will ask all patients to use a pre-procedure mouth rinse immediately before beginning a procedure.
• All dental personnel will use appropriate PPE as dictated by the procedure performed, consistent with current guidelines.
• All surfaces will be disinfected between patients in accordance with the ADA guidelines.

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.

Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.

Sincerely,
Michael and Deena Sher and Team