Dear Patient,

We hope this letter 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 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.

Changes to Scheduling, Check-in & Check-out Protocols:

• 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 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.
• You may see that our reception room will no longer offer magazines, children’s toys, beverage service and so forth, since those items are difficult to clean and disinfect.
• 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 also ask our patients to wait in the car or outside the office for their appointments and call the office when they arrive.
• 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. This will allow us time to properly disinfect our office between patients.
• We will do our best to schedule future/ follow up visits, as well as payments by phone to maximize social distancing and minimize your time spent in the office.

Patient & Staff Safety 

• Please have just one person bring you to your appointment. If possible, your companion should wait in the car.
• Only patients (NO VISITORS) are permitted in the exam room unless assistance is required.
• Please wear a mask or suitable face covering the entire time you are in the office, as per state regulations.
• Doctors and clinical staff will be wearing masks or filtering respirators, in addition to face-shields.
• All staff and patients will be screened daily to ensure that they are in good health and without fever.
• We have added medical-grade air filtration units throughout the office.  We also use UVC sanitizing lights per guidance of the Illinois Department of Public Health.
• Surfaces will be routinely sanitized to prevent potential spread of infection.