Practice Update
We were pleased to reopen our office in June 2020 and to have the opportunity to see our patients again.
Our communities went through a lot during the pandemic, and we all adapted to a new environment where safety is of utmost importance. At Shukhman Dental, infection control and your safety were and continue to be top priorities, and for our patients, you have experienced this during your visits to our office.
When you were away, we incorporated additional safety measures to continue to make your visits safe, secure, and comfortable. There are also some safety measures with which we will need your help that we have outlined below.
Our dental practice continues to follow the infection control guidelines and recommendations made by the American Dental Association (ADA), California Dental Association (CDA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Division of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH), better known as Cal/OSHA. We do this for your protection and to ensure that our infection control procedures are current and comply with each agency’s recommendations. These new stringent guidelines go even further to mitigate the risk of the most recent pandemic.
The following represented our office and patient safety measures that we had implemented.
Office safety measures:
- Everyone in the dental office, including staff and patients (except during treatment), is asked to wear a mask or cloth covering their nose and mouth.
- To assist in our efforts to disinfect our office and provide enhanced safety measures, we use Medical Grade High-Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) Filters/Purifiers (designed to remove 99.97% of all particles larger than 0.3 microns and 95% of all particles larger than 0.1 microns) to remove dust, pollen, germs, and other air pollutants.
- To help eliminate aerosol produced during dental procedures, we utilize the following tools as appropriate:
- An advanced High Volume Evacuator (HVE) intra-oral air suction system directly at the site of the working area in the mouth;
- A DryShield intra-oral suction system, an innovation that operates as a high-suction evacuator, bite block, tongue shield and oral pathway protector in one easy-to-use device that keeps the work area dry, clean and visible;
- A dental dam, which is a thin protective sheet placed around the problem tooth or teeth on which the dentist will operate, to create a clean and dry operating area, retract the patient’s lips and cheeks, allow treatment of the problem tooth or teeth without contamination from blood or saliva and reduces the release of blood and saliva from the patient’s mouth;
- An ADS Extraoral Dental Suction/Aerosol & Droplet Terminator System, which contains a high-powered suction system to collect aerosol and droplets that escape the mouth and to filter the air and droplets through a three layer filtration system that includes a Medical Grade HEPA filter (designed to remove 99.995% of all particles larger than 0.3 microns) and a UVC medical grade light disinfectant system, which kills all virus and germs in the filter; and
- We may also utilize an aerosol disinfectant fogging machine to distribute electrolyzed water – also known as hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a highly effective and intrinsically safe sanitizing agent that has been shown to work effectively in eliminating viruses.
- We clean and disinfect environment surfaces after each patient with an EPA registered disinfectant.
- We use a partition/sneeze guard atop of our counter in the front-office reception desk.
- We have hand sanitization stations in our front-office.
Patient safety measures:
At the time of scheduling during the pandemic, we would screen patients for symptoms of COVID-19 (such as fever, cough, and exposure to anyone with a COVID-19 infection) using the questions in the below Pre-appointment Wellness Screening Form. We would request that you download, complete, either scan or take a picture of the completed form, and email back to our office (at the following email address: [email protected]) the afternoon before your appointment. You would be asked those same questions again when you were in the office.
- We operated at a reduced capacity to ensure adequate social distancing and time to disinfect between each patient.
- We asked that patients not bring any companions to their appointment unless it was necessary (such as for a child or an individual requiring medical or physical assistance).
- We utilized a modified check-in procedure that dispenses with the need to wait in or use the reception area of the office to support social distancing and patient safety:
- All patients were asked to arrive wearing a mask or cloth covering their nose and mouth.
- Once a patient arrived, we would kindly ask that they call us.
- We would advise the patient when we were ready for their entrance into the office.
- Patients would be greeted outside of the main entrance to have their temperature administered. Anyone with a temperature of 99 or above was not seen and asked to reschedule to a different time.
- Those patients whose temperature was fine were provided a hand sanitizer, escorted to the set up chair and administered a hydrogen-peroxide based pre-treatment rinse.
- At the end of a visit, we would kindly ask that patients exit the office from the side door to minimize potential contact between patients.
Pre-appointment Documentation: