Infection Control Policy and Covid-19 Implementation

Our staff remains committed to ensuring the health and safety of everyone who walks through our doors. We are practicing a high level of infection control and follow all guidelines put out by our governing body, the CDHO, as well as implementing all IPAC and PIDAC protocols mandated by public health in order to minimize the exposure and risk of any virus within our clinic.

These are things that we are doing to protect your health and safety. Please help us by participating in the following precautions:

1. Our clinic will be pre-screening patients for potential illness during phone conversations and by asking you to complete a Covid-19 questionnaire prior to attending your appointment by printing off the patient form from our website or by completing it upon your arrival at our clinic. We ask that anyone who is feeling unwell or answers yes to any of the Covid screening questions, to please call the office to have their appointment rescheduled.
2. Fevers can be one of the first signs to indicate that an infection or illness may be developing. With your permission, we ask to check your temperature on the inside of your wrist with a thermometer. Treatment would be postponed and appointment rescheduled for any individual who presents with a reading over 100.4 degrees F.
3. We ask that you please disinfect your hands with the sanitizer that is supplied in our reception area upon your arrival.
4. We will be practicing social distancing of 6 feet (2 meters) in our office and we are limiting the amount of people in our reception area to 2, unless individuals are from the same family.
5. We will be conducting environmental surface disinfection between patients on areas that have had previous patient contact.
6. Plexi glass has been installation at our reception desk and will help to isolate transmission from staff to patients and vise versa during close contact communication or transactions.
7. Appointments will be scheduled in a way where there will be no overlap of appointments booked. We will be allowing 20-30 minutes between patient appointments to allow for proper fallow times, chart write up, room turnover and sterilization. We guarantee that these processes are being executed thoroughly.
8. Our operatory/treatment area is equipped with the largest size HVAC unit which purifies the air with a complete air exchange in less then 20 minutes. This unit contains both HEPA and carbon filters that remove 99.97% of airborne particles as small as 0.3 microns with a 4 stage purification system. Filters are changed routinely to maintain efficiency of the unit. We also have a ventilation system installed so that dirty air can be exhausted out of the clinic and clean air cycled in.
9. What is fallow time…this is the amount of time in minutes, determined by your professional HVAC installer, that is needed for airborne droplets to be settled or cleared from the operatory. Fallow time begins when the patient and staff have left the room and closed the door. The appropriate amount of fallow time must be scheduled between treatment of patients to allow droplets to settle (if aerosol generating procedures have been initiated), before the room can be disinfected and set up for the next patient.
10. Our clinic is setup with closed doorways (doors) to ensure that contaminated air particles and droplets are isolated when aerosol generated procedures are implemented.
11. All staff will have access to appropriate personal protective equiptment (PPE) in order to do their jobs safely and prevent transmission depending on the level of the procedure. Low risk procedures require a level 3 mask, gloves and protective eyewear and aerosol generated procedures require the use of N95 custom fit masks, faceshields, protective eyewear, gloves and isolation/fluid resistant gowns.
12. Purevac HVE is a high volume evacuation tip that attaches on to our dental unit suction lines. This allows the evacuation of aerosols, splatter, fluid and debris to occur directly within the patients’ oral cavity and directly minimizes the amount of aerosols that are able to escape into the air. This allows your hygienist to use the cavitron (ultrasonic scaling device) safely as it removes 90% more of the aerosols produced.