OUR RESPONSE TO CORONAVIRUS

We hope this message 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 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 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. For example:

• Our office will communicate with you beforehand to ask some screening questions. You’ll be asked those same questions again when you are in the office.
• We will ask that you take your temperature before coming to your appointment and we will scan your temperature immediately upon arrival, patients with temperature above 100.4 degrees will be referred to their PCP and not seen for dental treatment
• You have the option of texting us when you arrive and we can come to your car to get to take your temperature and get you for your appointment.
• Only patients who require assistance and minors will be allowed to be accompanied by another person.
• If it is absolutely necessary to bring a child with you to your dental appointment, please let our office staff know prior to your arrival.
• Only patients receiving treatment and Dental Health Care Providers will be allowed in treatment rooms
• We have hand sanitizer that we will ask you to use when you enter the office. You will also find some in the reception area and other places in the office for you to use as needed.
• We will have you use a medicated rinse at the beginning of your appointment.
• All patients are asked to wear masks or cloth face coverings other than during treatment
• You may see that our waiting room will no longer offer magazines, water, juice, children’s toys and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect. Water bottles and juice will be available upon request.
• We will be wearing additional protective gear and therefore keeping the office even cooler than usual, please bring a jacket if you get cold easily. We still will offer you a blanket if you are cold, they are washed after every patient according to CDC guidelines
• Appointments will be managed to allow for social distancing between patients. That might mean that you’re offered fewer options for scheduling your appointment.
• 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 are limiting our reception area to 2 people at a time and staggering our appointment times to facilitate this.
• It is more important than ever to make sure we have all of your personal medical and dental health information entered in our system, if you have not done so since June and need help with it please let us know.

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 call our office at (512)335-8600. Thank you for being our patient. We value your trust and loyalty and look forward to welcoming back our patients, neighbors and friends.

Sincerely,

Dr. Robert Ramirez and Team