Dear CCM Ortho family,
As we reopen on May 1st, we know many of you have questions about what we will be doing to protect our patients and ourselves from COVID-19.
First of all, we have always followed industry standard guidelines to prevent the transmission of infections in orthodontic offices. We are fortunate in that much of what we do is less invasive than in other fields of dentistry.
That being said, we plan on implementing the following additional precautions in our office beginning May 1st:
- Everyone entering our building, including all team members and doctors, will be screened for COVID-19 risk and have their temperature taken. If you have been sick or had a fever in the past 14 days, please call to reschedule your appointment. Any patient who has a temperature greater than 100 degrees will not be seen.
- All patients should check in from their vehicles by phone call and remain in their vehicles until the team calls to notify them we are ready to take them to the clinic
- All parents/guardians are strongly encouraged to wait in their vehicles during their children’s appointments
- If patients prefer not to enter the office alone, they are limited to 1 adult to accompany them (this includes the lobby). To be clear, no siblings will be permitted to enter the office.
- We have removed all snacks, magazines and common use items from the lobby and discontinued the use of our games and touchscreens
- Our toothbrushing stations will be closed (please brush before you arrive at our office)
- We will limit the use of our clinic chairs in order to provide greater spacing between patients
- We will use Air-free handpieces when possible to decrease aerosol formation
We believe that we can now administer treatment in a way that is safe for our patients and that the risk of unsupervised or postponed treatment outweighs the minimal risk of contracting the virus in our office. However, we understand that some patients may not yet be comfortable visiting our office and encourage them to reach out to us about how they can set up a virtual appointment.
Thank you for your continued patience as we work to provide the highest quality of care while ensuring a safe environment for our patients and team. We know this has been a difficult time for many people, but we continue to believe we will get through this by working together.
Sincerely,
Cooper, & Misner Team
