The Reopening

COVID-19 Response and Guidelines for Warmstone Family Dentistry

We are happy to inform our patients that we are now gradually reopening the rest of our dentistry and hygiene services under the appropriate guidelines to ensure the safety of both our staff and patients.

This has been a challenging time for everyone and we appreciate all of your support and patience throughout this process. We have taken many steps and made drastic changes to our operation to ensure we are reopening responsibly. We would not be reopening if we weren’t confident that the changes we have made will minimize the risks of COVID-19.

Non-aerosol visits: 

After the determination that non-aerosol treatment is suitable the routine safety practices are followed with the addition of the following:

• Hand instruments will be used vs. high speed/low speed instruments and other aerosol creating tools
• Cotton rolls or gauze is used in place of air-water syringe

Aerosol visits: 

• Enhanced PPE required in the form of N95 fit tested masks, gloves, face shield, protective eye ware and protective gowns for clinical staff.
• Rubber dams will be used to minimize aerosols and the spread of any infectious droplets
• The room in which the procedure took place will be closed, isolated and a newly installed HealthMate HM400 Standard HEPA air purifier will clean the air in the room. After that, the room is then cleaned, sterilized and prepared.
• Treatment room door is to be closed. (Doors were added during COVID)

General safety precautions:

• Social distancing is practiced by all staff and patients.
• The patient lounge is essentially closed. Patients will wait in their car or outside the building to be called in when the clinical staff are prepared to see them.
• Appointments will be staggered and our hours have been extended to accommodate social distancing.
• All items such as magazines, complementary fruit, beverages have been suspended or removed during this COVID response.
• Staff are eating lunches, taking breaks alone and practicing social distancing at all times.
• Each patient is required to sanitize their hands upon arrival and departure.
• Most patients will be on touchless checkout/dismissal.
• Each patient will rinse with 1% hydrogen peroxide for 30 seconds, prior to examination of the oral cavity.
• We have minimized the number of staff on at one point by extending our schedule to space people out while also allowing some employees to work offsite where appropriate.
• Staff is asked to self-evaluate their health and fitness each day to ensure they are fit to come in. Anyone with any illness is forbidden to enter the building and must stay home, following the appropriate steps for clearance.
• We’ve minimized touch points (doors open/automatic, less touching on the way out as we increase digital trends)
• Express touchless check-out (you will be required to securely store your credit or debit card information with Square to be automatically billed allowing you to leave without stopping at the desk upon departure)
• Staff is doing additional cleaning and wipe downs of the entire office daily
• We will be screening patients with questions within 24-48hrs of their visit and then again before entering the clinic on the day of the appointment.
• Temperature will be taken upon arrival.
• Doors have been installed on the treatment rooms.
• Plexiglass and other barriers installed where separation is needed.