Updated Friday, May 15, 2020
To our Patients at Castor Family Dentistry;
We hope that you and your families are doing well during this crazy time. We have missed you all and look forward to seeing your smiling faces again soon!
Our office will begin a gradual reopening on Tuesday, May 19th. As you all know, we have always followed the recommendations of the ADA, the CDC and OSHA when it comes to our practices of safety and sanitation. We have always practiced universal precautions and take the safety of our staff and patients very seriously. Our goal is to start slow to make sure that we have the proper protocols and equipment in place for everyone’s safety. As we reopen, you will see some additional interim measures that will be taken while we battle this virus as a community.
Some of the changes that you will notice are:
- We will be reducing our schedules and appointments, allowing more time between patients. This will allow for enhanced disinfection of treatment rooms, and limit possible interactions between patients.
- We will be calling prior to your appointment to ask screening questions to ensure it is safe for you to come into the office. A list of these questions can be found here. We will ask all patient to cover their face with a face mask or cloth covering while in the building.
- We will ask all patients to call us when you have arrived in our parking lot, and remain in your car until we contact you to come up for your appointment.
- We will ask the same screening questions and take your temperature with a non-touch infrared thermometer when you arrive. You will be asked to sign a screening questionnaire.
- Alcohol-based hand sanitizer will be provided for you to use.
- We request that patients come to the office unaccompanied unless assistance is needed. Children and special needs adults may have 1 guardian. All other guests will be asked to wait outside of the building.
- The waiting room will look very empty. There will be no books, magazines, coffee or fliers in and effort to minimize cross-contamination.
- We will perform daily COVID-19 risk screening and temperature checks on all employees.
- All of our staff, including the front desk, will be wearing facemasks. Clinical assistants, hygienists and Dr. Castor will be wearing additional equipment (i.e.; hair coverings, face shields, goggles, gowns, etc.)
- In addition to our already stringent practices of disinfecting our treatment rooms after every patient, we will also be cleaning our common areas more frequently throughout the day.
- We will be using a variety of devices to minimize the amount of aerosol (mist, splatter, etc) that we create. These suction devices will isolate your teeth and help to seal the remainder of your mouth.
- To help cover the cost of additional supplies and equipment needed to operate safely during the pandemic, each appointment will have an associated fee of $15.00 that is the patient’s responsibility.
- We will be calling the patients who were forced to cancel their appointment during this pandemic to reschedule them. We ask for your patience and understanding as we work through this and try to get you back as soon as possible.
We are happy to answer any questions you may have about the steps that we have taken to keep you and our staff safe while in our practice. We are enormously grateful for trust and loyalty and we are honored to be your dental team. We look forward to seeing you again! Thank you for being our wonderful patients!
Sincerely,
Dr. Brandon Castor and the rest of our Team